

In Flatiron's warehouse career program with Amazon, however, only 35% of the 270 graduates held college degrees, which shows some promise for diversity and accessibility. In addition, eight in 10 Flatiron School students hold college degrees, contradicting the common pitch that boot camps are an alternative to a four-year degree. Nearly 70% of coding boot-camp students are white, and over half of boot-camp graduates identify as male, according to the analyst group Course Report. But while companies look to boot camps and other alternative pathways to solve their skills and diversity gaps, graduates largely still fall into the dominant identity groups within the tech industry. What this means for boot campsįlatiron School's partnership strategy reflects a larger trend in boot camps that involves reimagining how graduates land jobs in the field. While Flatiron was unwilling to disclose how much the partnership itself costs Amazon, a part-time session at Flatiron costs students about $16,900 for 40 weeks. "You have to have some really strong time-management skills." "I would balance a full-time job as an IT at Amazon's fulfillment center while also completing around 40 hours' worth of classes at the same time," Luckewicz said.

#FLATIRON BOOTCAMP SOFTWARE#
After completing the software-engineering track at Flatiron School in June, he now works as a software engineer at a startup in Florida. One participant, Tyler Luckewicz, worked at the Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York, as a warehouse employee, then as an IT administrator in 2020. While this move doesn't make short-term business sense for Amazon, the Gartner analyst Craig Lowery said it further expands the company's customer base and partner network in the long term. With a boot-camp certificate in hand, the Amazon graduates go on to interview for positions outside of the company, with Flatiron working with Amazon's partner companies like FDM and Revature to commit to interviewing at least 25 of the 270 graduates of Amazon's tech program. Last month, 270 warehouse workers graduated from the program. In February, Amazon chose Flatiron School to develop two part-time courses in software development and cybersecurity, which would be entirely paid for by Amazon and taught to participating Amazon warehouse employees. "There's a giant population of folks in the workforce who can do these jobs and want to gain these skills but couldn't access a program like Flatiron School without the support of their employer," Rombom told Insider. Companies get access to a talented group of candidates, and workers face less risk with better access to postgraduation job opportunities. This is a "win-win" for both parties, according to Rebekah Rombom, Flatiron School's chief business development officer. The insurance company is paying graduates to train in key software skills at the firm, with the potential to then land full-time engineering roles at the company. Amazon, for example, is paying Flatiron to hold training programs for its warehouse employees in a larger initiative the firm has to skill its workers, while Liberty Mutual is following an apprenticeship funding model. While the school runs both employer-funded and direct-enrollment programs and plans to continue doing both, the bootcamp's partnerships are already playing out in various ways. Rather than have students pay tuition, the New York-based boot camp wants more companies it partners with to foot the bill. But some recruiters and companies have been reluctant to hire from boot camps, leaving graduates on the hook for the high tuition costs with few job prospects.īut now, the boot-camp provider Flatiron School thinks it has a solution.

They promised lucrative, direct pathways into some of Silicon Valley's biggest companies. The tech industry is facing a two-pronged talent struggle: There aren't enough workers to fill open roles, and there's a stunning lack of diversity, which continues to limit who's represented in the development of crucial real-world technologies.Ĭoding boot camps - especially when they started to gain traction five years ago - pitched themselves as a way to solve tech's diversity and economic accessibility problems while remediating the skills gap that tech companies face. 270 Amazon warehouse workers recently graduated from Flatiron's Amazon-sponsored program.Now the coding boot camp Flatiron School is partnering with companies to pay student tuition.Many feel boot camps have fallen short on their goal to solve tech's diversity and skills gaps.
