Densely populated counties in England with high-demand for software developers
Counties all across the country recognise that digital skills demand continues to evolve and grow with acute demand in areas such as coding, programming, and software engineering. Additionally, EM3 + rest of Surrey LSIP mentions the need for improving diversity and inclusion including getting more females and neurodiverse people into IT.
Ofsted’s NPMV report findings on Code Institute’s delivery of Skills Bootcamps in collaboration with the West Midlands Combined Authority
WMCA responded to the West Midlands and Warwickshire LSIP by partnering with Code Institute to deliver Skills Bootcamps. On 24 and 25 January 2024, Ofsted inspected our delivery of Skills Bootcamps in collaboration with WMCA. We were judged as having made ‘significant progress’ in two themes and ‘reasonable progress’ in one theme. Some of the findings state that “leaders have a thorough and up-to-date understanding of the emerging skills needs in the sector. They use this information to continually review and develop the curriculum to ensure that it meets the sector’s skills needs. For example, they are mapping artificial intelligence knowledge into the curriculum. As a result, learners have the most up-to-date knowledge and coding experience.’ The full report is available on the Government’s site here.
Westminster Adult Education Service partners with Code Institute to meet skills needs
The GLA [Greater London Authority] funding targets disadvantaged groups that are marginalised in the digital sector. Shortly after the GLA released some bootcamp funding for software developers, Westminster Adult Education Service (WAES) in conjunction with Code Institute, created a Full-Stack Bootcamp that uses the Code Institute curriculum and LMS but is taught face-to-face over 16 weeks.
WAES launched their first Full-Stack Bootcamp in January 2023. The first 11-strong cohort graduated in April 2022. Seven of them are now working full time in the digital industry. Waqas Ahmed, Head of English, Maths, Digital, and Inclusion shared that “the second Bootcamp cohort started at the beginning of October with 23 students. It was heavily oversubscribed.” Furthermore, 90% of Bootcamp learners are among the lowest earners, he added.
Find out more through interviews with the WAES team, a bootcamp learner and the employer community feedback – watch the video case study below.
How to leverage Skills Bootcamps in your curriculum planning
Our ambition is to enable colleges that would like to take part in the Government’s new pilot initiative with a clear delivery pathway. To that end, we hosted Alison Muggridge, Assistant Principal of Curriculum and Quality at Westminster Adult Education Service and Pasquale Fasulo, Director of Further and Higher Education at the City of Bristol College, for a fireside chat to share best practices about how they have embedded high-quality Full-Stack Software Developer Skills Bootcamp delivery using very different delivery models.
We covered key issues and challenges across both models, including:
– Skills Bootcamps background
– Motivations for offering Skills Bootcamps
– Challenges faced and overcome (including payment models and staffing)
– Advice to providers considering Skills Bootcamps delivery
– Success stories & Employment outcomes
– Q&A
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