How do you know that an industry has gone mainstream? When the federal government wants to subsidize it.
“Integrating bootcamps into the established system might just saddle them with all the established system’s problems.”
Coding bootcamps are intensive courses in computer programming that span only a few months, making them a quicker alternative to a traditional college degree in computer science. Last week, the Obama administration announced a pilot program that would make a handful of these courses, along with other educational programs from nontraditional providers, eligible for federal student loans and Pell Grants. From among dozens of applicants, the pilot program, known as Educational Quality through Innovation Partnerships (EQUIP), selected four coding bootcamps and four other programs and granted access to $17 million in aid funds to educate 1,500 students.
Bootcamps have seen substantial growth just in the past year, with 6,700 graduates in 2014 and 16,100 in 2015—a 138% increase. According to a survey of bootcamp graduates by Course Report, a group that tracks the industry, 89% of students are placed in a job four months after graduation, with the vast majority of those jobs in a relevant field. Graduates saw an average boost to their salaries of $18,000, and low-income students saw double that.
Better data on the industry is needed, particularly regarding the non-completers who were not included in the survey, but these early results are promising. So promising, indeed, that the Obama administration wants to subsidize the industry through the federal student aid program.
The urge is understandable, even for free-market types who are generally more skeptical of subsidies. Currently, the higher education system operates...
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Preston Cooper is a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute's Economics21. Follow him on Twitter here.
This piece originally appeared in Forbes