You’ve heard us say it and we’ll say it a bunch more times–the future of tech is incredibly bright. And it’s only grown in potential in recent years, thanks to an increase in the popularity of and importance placed on tech bootcamps. And while bootcamps themselves are gaining traction in the industry and becoming an incredibly popular way to get into the tech industry, there’s also a lot going on in the classroom.
In this article, we’ll talk about how tech bootcamps came to be, what you can expect from your tech bootcamp, what’s changed in recent years, and what we see happening in the future.
The Origins of Tech Bootcamps
To understand what’s happening today in bootcamps and what we predict for the future, it’s important to be familiar with bootcamps themselves, where they came from, and why they’ve gained so much traction in recent years. As you probably know already, bootcamps are incredibly intensive, fast-moving courses that aim to teach students marketable skills to fill gaps in the job market immediately after graduation.
Bootcamps exist across a wide range of areas, but have become specifically popular in various areas of tech because there is such a large (and continuously increasing) skills gap in the tech industry. Why? Let’s discuss.
The tech skills gap
You know the tech sector moves incredibly fast and that’s one reason why we’re so passionate about it and always looking for the next opportunity. And while this is due to constant innovation and new developments, which is an overall positive thing for the sector, it has led to the creation of a large skills gap.
A skills gap is when there are open positions in the market, but the available candidates do not meet the requirements for the job and therefore aren’t hired; there are tons of open slots in tech companies and even regular companies in other sectors for tech roles, but there simply aren’t enough qualified candidates to meet the need.
How is the tech skills gap being created? It’s simple: companies want to keep up with the latest trends in tech and are in search of skilled professionals that meet their needs. But as new technologies are released practically constantly, finding enough people to fill these needs and keep up with tomorrow’s developments has proved to be quite the challenge.
Tech bootcamps to fill the skills gap
This is exactly where tech bootcamps come into play: they serve as efficient and high-quality ways for aspiring techies to learn the necessary skills to enter the workforce while filling a hole that exists in the job market. And while there are a lot of future techies who are currently in university programs or learning new skills on their own, it’s hard for them to properly prepare for the future workforce when they aren’t sure what skills will be needed when they’re ready to enter the job market.
Here’s where tech bootcamps take center stage. Tech bootcamps are innovative and enhanced ways to learn the skills that the job market currently needs so that graduates are uniquely suited to fill these holes in the job market. How? Through the following techniques:
Bootcamps focus on the exact skills needed to land a job in tech, teaching students exactly what they need to know and not focusing too much on extra information.
The curriculum of bootcamps is expertly designed by tech professionals themselves, with input from hiring managers who know exactly what’s needed.
Bootcamps are fast-moving, preparing students to be job-ready in just a few months.
In addition to being a great way to land a job in tech, bootcamps also provide the following benefits and advantages for students:
Tech bootcamps are affordable, providing students the opportunity to get the education they need to land a job in tech without going into debt.
Because they’re conducted over such a short period of time, tech bootcamps allow career changers the opportunity to make the leap into tech without being out of work for too long.
For those with tight schedules or other responsibilities, such as other jobs or childcare duties, tech bootcamps offer flexible options, such as part or full time, in addition to in-person or remote courses.
Truly focused on filling the skills gap from day one, tech bootcamps also provide students with career counseling and advice so that they’re able to prepare for the job hunt.
The Future of Tech Bootcamps
The popularity of tech bootcamps has just increased over time and we’re sure it will continue to gain importance as more and more people realize how helpful they are for both aspiring techies and those looking to fill the skills gap. The future of tech is incredibly bright for a number of reasons, but for these in particular:
The globalization of tech bootcamps
The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic led to the widespread adoption of remote working and learning solutions to deal with the immediate challenge of quarantine obligations and while many have schools and offices have returned to pre-pandemic conditions and are back in person, bootcamps have realized the value of offering remote options to students.
On one hand, some students prefer online learning for a variety of reasons; others have disabilities or duties that prevent them from consistently attending in-person courses. The availability of remote courses has allowed entirely new groups of people to participate and therefore be afforded the same opportunity to get into tech as their peers.
The other hand, however, has been quite transformative: remote bootcamps have opened the doors to increasing digital literacy and tech prowess across the world, allowing students from every corner of the world the same opportunity to learn about tech and get into the field.
In the future, we can expect to see even more bootcamps searching for students from the entire world, welcoming absolutely anyone who wants to learn about tech.
A move away from coding
When tech bootcamps first came to be, most if not all bootcamps focused solely on teaching their students how to code, preparing them to be the next web developer or software engineer. And while interest in coding is still widespread and lots of bootcamp students are learning how to code through bootcamps, more and more bootcamps are choosing to focus on other areas of tech, such as UX/UI design or cybersecurity.
There are many reasons for this, but a main one is that tech is infiltrating every area of every industry; companies don’t just hire web developers to write the code for the site and keep it clear of bugs. They need skilled UX/UI designers to create an inviting and intuitive framework that sets their company apart from the competition while ensuring that their cybersecurity professionals keep their site free of hackers and phishing attacks.
Coding bootcamps will continue to attract many interested techies, but we’ll see more and more bootcamps in various topics sprouting up in the future.
A focus on artificial intelligence
Everyone is talking about it and there’s a reason why: artificial intelligence technologies have absolutely taken the entire world (not just the tech world!) by storm, allowing us to do things we never thought possible. Developers are asking ChatGPT to write code for them and deep learning algorithms are allowing data analysts to process and sort incredibly large amounts of data; these are all great applications of these new developments, but there’s a key here: professionals who know how to use AI technology are sorely needed.
These AI tools aren’t just imagined overnight; they take lots of time and effort to both create and maintain and as more and more AI tools are released, even more skilled professionals who know how to make the most of them will be needed.
AI tools are fantastic additions to tech, but they won’t replace jobs; on the contrary, they’ll create new jobs while allowing us to reach places of tech that we didn’t think were possible before. As tech schools start creating bootcamps dedicated entirely to AI tools, we can also expect to see more and more AI taught in other courses.
The future of tech is incredibly bright and at Ironhack we’re eager to see everything the next generation of techies will accomplish as they use tech bootcamps to get into the industry and begin their journey. If you’re considering a future in tech but don’t know how to get started, consider one of our bootcamps in web development, UX/UI design, cybersecurity, or data analytics and see where your future could take you.
We offer career support during the entire course and up to a year post-graduation, giving you the opportunity to prepare yourself for the job hunt and your first role in tech.
Now’s the moment to get into tech–don’t let another second pass you by and check out our bootcamps today.
