I have not refrained from comment about the upsurge in coding startups attracting large amounts of funding and also media coverage.
My ambivalent feelings toward this movement were supported by the, in my opinion, misleading underlying message in that infamous code.org video that people’s lives will inevitably become better when they know how to program.
Now, as I stated at various occasions, I am certainly not against kids and for that matter adults as well learning about the principles behind programming and also practical coding skills - if done right. Quite the contrary, I think knowledge about programming is going to be seen as a basic skill in our resumes, everybody will simply to have it. In my opinion, it will be seen similar to people today who don’t have computer skills or a driver’s license - to disqualify for certain (many) jobs.
The Investment
That said, for the time being programming skills can give your career and salary a fairly nice boost. On EDUKWEST we reported on startups General Assembly and the Flatiron School that both attracted the interest of investors for their programming classes. Although a 12-week-course at both institutions is priced around $12,000 per student, they are not lacking candidates.
Future students of the Flatiron School even have to go through a rigorous selection process and have to do extensive pre-course work. The schools claims that its acceptance rate is somewhere around 8-10% which makes it more selective than some of the renown universities in the US.
Although the tuition cost is high, it doesn’t keep students from applying. Both programs also launched funds that aim at helping students to finance the courses, often with a focus on underrepresented parts of society in tech including African-Americans, Hispanics and women.
The Flatiron School also has a job placement service, companies pay the startup to be put in touch with candidates that fit their requirement, and states graduates of find jobs with a starting salary of $70,000+ / year.
The Outcome
The Coalition for Queens, a non profit initiative, has just released some data around its Access to Code program. Through tech education Access to Code wants to place more people from underrepresented communities into tech careers and to foster entrepreneurship.
Access to Code runs for 18 weeks and the non profit claims that according to a survey of its first class 15 out of 21 graduates are now employed full-time. The others are working part-time, pursue their own projects or are still in school with only one who left the tech field. Three students had dropped out early into the program.
Equally as important, their economic status has changed quite dramatically with an average income of now $73,000 / per anno. The range of salaries now being between $40,000 to $10,000. This is quite a shift from before when the class had an average salary of $23,000 with half the students earning $15,000 or less.
Also noteworthy, the students who could afford to pay tuition paid the program $1,000. The program was largely supported by the city of New York and Google, both together paid around $200,000 as Crain’s reports.
Urban Phenomenon
Nevertheless, I see at least two main issues when it comes to coding schools. The first one being demographics and where we can find these coding schools. So far, I have only heard of the programs either taking place in New York or San Francisco but none in more rural areas and underdeveloped cities.
Tech hubs like New York, San Francisco or London have a scarcity in tech talent, so companies are willing to pay qualified individuals a really nice salary. If we take a look at the Infographic from the WSJ we can see how the annual salaries for web developers (and virtually any other profession) vary greatly throughout the country. Whereas a web developer in California can earn $102,150, the national average is at $63,160 with professionals in Michigan sometimes earning as little as $19,040.
I also think companies and program organizers must pay even greater attention to attracting a wider demographic group. For now we have initiatives like GA's Opportunity Fund that aim to bring more women and other underrepresented communities into the tech space which is of course great. But we should also mention that even among these the majority holds a college degree.
So what we can conclude from the different data points is that right now tech education can be the starting point into a better career and pay you well if you’re a young, well-educated individual, often being white and male.
Offer and Demand
The nagging question to me is: for how long? As all of the programs portrayed in this article (and similar ones I didn’t mention) state to be determined to scale their operations with more classes and more students, I would argue that it is less than a generation who is going to benefit. Early signs are already written on the wall. Course Report has released a study which indicates that the market is growing rapidly and estimates 2014 will see almost three times (2.8x) as many graduates as in 2013.
As every market, the market for programmers is driven by offer and demand. Developers today are paid that well because they are a scarce resource. Why should a Google, Facebook, insert big tech company here, continue to pay such high salaries along with the other perks for even only decent devs if there was an abundance of these people?
I think, the answer is simple: they won’t. You average developer is not a computer scientist, he or she is not necessarily a creative or thinker. As soon as there will be enough of these “average developers” salaries are quickly going to plummet. Therefore big tech companies have a natural interest to support as many programs, initiatives and code camps as possible.
Picture "4 geeks" by cismet_geeks