Why Most Coding Bootcamps Have Great ROI
By: Rachel Seitz, Climb Credit
Climb Credit, a student lending company which evaluates the return-on-investment (ROI) of education programs before funding them, chose to fund coding bootcamps because of the strong results they can deliver to students. In short, students often gain much more in salary growth than what they put in for tuition. But what is it about technology bootcamps that makes them such a good alternative to traditional education? Here are three factors that come into play to benefit coding bootcamp students.
Cost
Instead of paying tens—or even hundreds—of thousands of dollars for a 4-year degree, coding bootcamp students have the opportunity to gain a skills-based education without committing themselves to a high tuition and subsequently higher loan payments. Climb's goal is to help make sure students can receive an education that not only helps them reach their career goals, but that does so without sacrificing their financial goals in the process.
Timeframe
Beyond investing money, you also have to invest time and effort into pursuing an education. With a typical education, you have to put in years before you're able to reap the career and salary benefits of your education, and unfortunately, not everyone has that amount of time, especially when those years of full-time education often mean years spent outside of the workforce, not earning a full-time income. Bootcamps, however, offer a relatively short timeframe—many are completed within 3 months. Students are able to build their skills and start their job hunt at a much faster rate.
Graduate Outcomes
At the end of the day, though, paying less tuition and taking up less time is outweighed by the results shown at the end of the program. Neither of those factors matters if the students don't see a benefit once they graduate—that's why Climb evaluates the quality of every industry and program that they work with.1 And they continue this evaluation to make sure that positive graduation and job placement outcomes are maintained by their partner schools.
What have they observed since partnering with coding bootcamp programs? Based on surveys of Climb borrowers:
- Graduates are getting their tuition's worth: Students have seen a median salary increase of 66.7%2
- By the end of 2017, Climb funded-programs resulted in $50mm net new annual salary for students3
- Graduates are being placed in high-growth fields: For Climb students who held two jobs since their program, there's a 38.9% median pay increase from the first to the second job.4
1Climb's ROI calculation is performed on a best-efforts basis, based on the information available to Climb, and is not a guarantee of any individual school's ability to benefit any individual person. Climb makes no representation, warranty or guarantees of any kind, express, implied, or statutory regarding its ROI calculation or what the ROI calculation implies about i) any particular school; or ii) any person's decision to attend a school. Students should not rely on Climb's ROI calculation in determining whether to attend a school and should make such a decision after performing their own analysis of whether a school is right for them.
2Based on survey responses from 1,279 Climb students.
3Based on an analysis conducted using 1,279 individual income data points out of a total of 3105 students who received funding from Climb Credit to attend a representative program, typically at a coding bootcamp, and graduated between October 2014 and November 2017. Salary numbers self-reported by students in response to survey questions.
4Based on 228 survey responses in which graduates informed Climb that they've held two different jobs since leaving their program.
