Diversity in coding bootcamps

Barriers to entry

With the skills gap increasing and lockdowns being used by many to develop their skills, more people are looking for alternative routes into the industry outside the traditional computer science degree path.

Adele Barlow, head of content and communications at London-based coding camp Makers Academy, said computer science degrees are typically accompanied by much higher barriers to entry.

She added that some bootcamps, including Makers, run free apprenticeships to help with the issue of high barriers, with the only entry requirement being the completion of some coding exercises that test the prospective students’ competency.

“We do not care where you went to school… all we care about is whether you can do the coding exercises. We’ve had lawyers and bankers who get sick of the city, we’ve had painters and flooring contractors who want to earn more, we had musicians who just want a better salary,” she said, adding that building for diversity beyond the “surface levels” takes time.

Makers itself has recently called for a change in the narrative around women in tech, launching the Women in Software Powerlist and the Changemakers list to highlight the people making a positive change to diversity and inclusion in the UK’s tech sector.

However, the majority of bootcamp graduates will have to pay for the courses, which can cost thousands depending on which ones they choose to ustilise.

According to Rik Lomas, a New York-based startup advisor who founded and runs online coding  bootcamp SuperHi, many bootcamps can only afford to pay half their fees when offering scholarships, meaning the high-cost barriers to entry remain for prospective coders from poorer backgrounds

“When we talk about the more expensive bootcamps [charging] in the thousands, that just causes a lot of the same problems. In reality, if it’s a three-month programme you need some kind of privilege to be able to even take three months off work in the first place,” said Lomas.

“You’re not getting paid for it either, so the reality is you’re losing money, losing time, and you’re paying for the privilege of doing that,” he said, adding this dynamic leads to “the same type of people” getting involved.

“I’m not saying it’s just a ‘white tech guy’ approach, there are more people coming in from different angles now, but the bootcamps kind of keep that system in place. I do see some of the prices of these things and think it’s eye-watering how much it is.”

For prospective bootcamp students, Lomas recommends finding a job “with as few distractions as possible” so students can start teaching themselves using free online tools in their spare time while still getting paid by their day job.

Tailor courses for diversity

Rachid Hourizi, director at the Institute of Coding, a consortium of universities, businesses and industry experts set up in 2018 by the UK government to close the digital skills gap by creating degree-level courses, said courses should be tailored to fit people’s existing working hours.

“For people in economic hardship, you need to be able to learn this skill and then apply it immediately, then learn another skill and apply that immediately rather than remove yourself from the workplace,” he said.

“At the moment, the rising tide is lifting all boats – we are all seeing great success in terms of enrolling and engaging people because the role of digital is becoming clearer. But then the next step is that we all need to work on that inclusion piece to make sure this really is for everybody, really is lifelong, and that it really is achievable in a modular manner.”

“It is up to the bootcamps to design courses that actively engage with these issues, he added. “It’s not the people who aren’t coming to blame, it is the people providing the education and training who are to blame – the change must be in us, and we know because we’ve done [these changes] that it’s perfectly possible to run courses with a fifty-fifty gender balance, for example,” he said.

“The point is we have an education system and an industry that does not have a great diversity record, and therefore if you don’t think carefully about that stuff, of course you get the same people come in, the same bias reflected, and the same confirmation of the problems that exist.”