UTSA has partnered with Trilogy Education to offer a 24-week coding boot camp program beginning Sept. 17. Each boot camp is expected to last six months.
UTSA is the latest of a growing number of U.S. universities including UC Berkeley Extension, University of Central Florida, UCLA Extension, UC Irvine, Northwestern and Rutgers to partner with Trilogy to offer similar programs.
Coding boot camps, like San Antonio based “CodeUp,” and now UTSA’s Coding Boot Camp, are 20-30 week programs designed to accelerate students’ careers by quickly teaching them how to write web-based software.
UTSA’s Coding Boot Camp will be offered through UTSA’s new Department of Data Sciences and is open to all UTSA students and the public.
However, the new coding boot camp is designed for working professionals and offers primarily night and weekend class sessions combined with a course curriculum that emphasises a distributed, but “social,” coding environment.
Students will not receive course credit toward a four-year degree or an advanced degree at UTSA by completing the bootcamp.
The tech camp review website, Switchup.org, estimates the cost of UTSA’s program at roughly $11,000.
According to Senior Associate Vice Provost for Academic Innovation Lisa Blazer, the coding boot camp was implemented as a part of UTSA’s new Workforce Initiative.
UTSA’s Workforce Initiative launched in June of 2019 in hopes to diversify UTSA’s continuing education options for San Antonio professionals.
“There is still a skills gap that can be filled, and that’s what we are aiming to do with this new boot camp.” Blazer said. “We are offering a part-time program so that working adults can expand their web development skills. This is also tied to the new San Antonio Workforce Initiative.”
According to Blazer, Trilogy will offer career services to students who participate, including networking and code portfolio demo events.
Trilogy says that its graduates have been hired by more than 2,000 companies throughout the world.
“As UTSA expands our San Antonio workforce initiative, we have to keep up with what employers need,” Blazer said. “This new boot camp allows us to meet workforce needs especially for working adults as they look to expand their careers and gain relevant skills for the future.”
