Communications of the ACM
The Iron Yard Academy Closure Surprises Tech Execs
Credit: LarryBartley.com
News that code school The Iron Yard Academy is closing up shop surprised tech CEOs in Durham, N.C., Thursday.
Iron Yard — and code schools like it — offer an exciting proposition. They sell the idea that, in a matter of months you can drop $10,000 and come out with a skill that, according to Iron Yard, means instant employability in the Triangle's growing tech sector.
Compare that to the university route, where a computer science degree at North Carolina State University would take years.
For some, however, the reality wasn't what they imagined.
Tobias Dengel, CEO of Virginia app developer WilowTree, has been heavily involved with The Iron Yard Academy. His firm has spoken to its classes and interviewed its graduates for job openings.
"But we've never actually hired anyone from there," he says. "I think the issue is, the amount of time they try to teach people to code, it's just not enough. It's not deep enough for the type of stuff we do."
While code school graduates might be suitable for "lighter forms of software development," they just don't compare to "someone who studied computer science for four years at N.C. State. You can't get there in 12 weeks," he says. "That's the bottom line."
Iron Yard isn't the only code school whose concept has struggled.
San Francisco-based Dev Bootcamp, which claimed to be the first of its kind coding camp when it launched in 2012, is following suit, is shutting down in December.
From Triangle Business Journal
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