Comment by columbo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by columbo | Hacker News Reader

I fully support the focus on education and I really hope this next decade could be the start of the "Golden Era of Education".

To me DevBootcamp is CCE, and CCE has been around for years (what is cce: http://www.ccc.edu/programs/pages/web-design-basic-certifica...). Unfortunately I don't believe CCE is at all effective in training people on being programmers or designers.

So here's my throwdown: Is DevBootcamp really effective or is there a participant bias? Would DevBootcamp's employment percentage be just as high when applied to the general population that would take CCE; unemployed, unskilled?

Disclaimer: I was involved in CCE with two colleges for about 7 years and frankly I see the whole thing as a scam. I would love to see that industry get shaken up.

edit: wording, formatting

Disclaimer: I'm the founder of Dev Bootcamp Chicago.

Tough to argue at this point that there isn't participant bias. Time will tell, particularly as we increase the number of participants in 2013. I've spent a significant amount of time at several different programs like Dev Bootcamp and found it to be the most effective program out there. It is truly immersive with students spending 80-100+ hours/week in the trenches with over 40 hours/week of structured learning. More thoughts at: http://nuts.redsquirrel.com/post/37111323801/of-feet-doors-a...

Good luck! Honestly I think you'll have to make a choice between a high success rate or a large number of people trained.

To use an example, think of no-kill-shelters vs pounds. No Kill shelters can boast a high success rate and a low return rate because they only handle a fraction of the animals a pound handles. Not only that but the no-kill selects animals they believe will be likely to be placed and leaves animals that are not good candidates.

Someone has to be a pound, willing to take in any animal off the street and give it a chance, while at the same time admitting that it just does not have enough space for every animal and that tough decisions will be a result.

Someone else has to be a nokill shelter, willing to select those that seem the brightest and invest to give them the most opportunity available while leaving the others.

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