CodeClan

I decided to take the massive jump and change career from driving HGV's to a Software Developer and has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. I decided to do this thought CodeClan as I didn't want to do an online course, even though the last... Read More four weeks of our course did ended up being remote learning thanks to a certain pandemic. The attraction of CodeClan to me was the immersive bubble you find yourself in and the careers support to help you find a job at the end of the course. The course its self is great as it teaches you not only the skills to code but the skills you need to learn which in my opinion is just as valuable if not more as this is what you'll be doing for the rest of your career. The staff and the instructors couldn't do more to help on all levels weather it is help in understanding the course work or emotional support. The 16 weeks is a rollercoaster of emotions.
CodeClan is fast paced and not for the lazy, you have to put in the effort to get the most out of the course. The PDA SQA qualification option did turn out to be much more work than CodeClan sells it to be. The SQA qualification is 20% of an HND and is an extra optional free addition to the course which involves collecting evidence throughout the course and an exam. If you do not keep on top of it, it does become more hassle than its worth.
The way that CodeClan handled and adapted to the COVID19 situation was excellent and the way that our instructors adapted to switch to a remote learning model was fantastic. The careers help that CodeClan Careers team offer is great, but personally do not think that my cohort have received the best that CodeClan has to offer in this area, but that is only due to the pandemic situation and the reduction on companies hiring graduates.
Over all CodeClan is a great experience.

I don't generally write reviews, but after completing the Professional Software Development course at CodeClan (Edinburgh campus) earlier this month and having had such an incredible experience studying at CodeClan, I felt compelled to share my views.... Read More After reading some of the previous reviews, I can't help but wonder what made their experience at CodeClan so fundamentally different to mine, so I wanted to offer my own views in response.

Before starting the course, I already had two university degrees, which was one of the main reasons I chose to do CodeClan over another degree. This was a much quicker and more hands-on approach to learning to code (nevermind the fact that my history was in social studies, which would make it hard, if not impossible, to make the jump to a masters in computer science), and the skills that I had developed both at university and in working life put me in a position where going back to university would not have given me all that much, and would have been a significant investment both in terms of time and money. It is much easier to live as a student and without income for a few months, than it is for a year or two. Moreover, the learning environment is completely different: everyone at CodeClan has decided to make a change in their careers after already doing something else. It's not a place you simply drift to, but everyone there is committed and wants to get as much out of their experience as possible.

I attended an open evening before deciding to do the course. This allowed me to hear from previous and current students, and learn more about the course. This was really useful, and unlike Anonymous below, I felt that CodeClan were very transparent and open about all statistics that they showed, and that the graduate employment statistics they referenced in the open evening were indeed concerned with those who had found employment in the tech industry. Because I had familiarised myself with the course contents at the open day, and an induction day before the start of the course, I felt that we all had been given a very clear idea of what to expect from the course by the time we started. This made it very easy to adjust to the (major!) change of going back to studying something totally new for the first time in many years. The staff at CodeClan also place an emphasis on the mental health and wellbeing of students, and aim to promote an inclusive environment. As one of only two female students in my cohort, I never felt like there was a "boys' club" mentality at CodeClan, and I knew that if there were issues, I could easily address those with members of staff, whether that's instructors or student support staff.

When it comes to staff in general, I have nothing but positive things to say. Our cohort had incredible instructors, all of whom went out of their way to ensure that we were all on top of things and felt supported throughout the course. They created an absolutely fantastic open atmosphere where I felt able to voice any struggles or ask questions. Most importantly, they always seemed excited about teaching us and showing us new things. The support was never limited to just our own instructors either, but all other instructors were always eager to help too. This was the first time in my educational history that I can genuinely say every single teacher was encouraging and helpful, and did so much to help us become not just developers, but confident in our own skills. I was in the unlucky position of being only halfway through my course when Covid-19 forced the school to shut, but the instructors ensured that our transition to an online learning environment was as smooth as possible, and they did an incredible job. I never felt like I learnt any less than I would have in a physical classroom, and actually ended up gaining so much more knowledge of remote programming tools than I otherwise would have.

In terms of career support, again Covid-19 placed us in an unlucky position in the sense that many companies have frozen their hiring processes. Because of this, we haven't had the chance to have a speed networking event yet, however we will receive careers support from CodeClan for longer than intended because of the current climate. CodeClan do try to help you as much as possible and want to see everyone employed with one of their partner companies or elsewhere in the tech industry. I think the crucial thing to remember is that completing the course doesn't mean that a job is handed to you. The tech market is growing, and there are jobs available, but you still need to work hard, apply to many jobs and continue to develop your skills in the meantime. And sometimes something like Covid-19 happens, and the job market changes unexpectedly: that's a risk you take when you change careers. Even with this in mind, I have never regretted my decision to do this course. In fact, it's now opening up so many more doors, and more open doors is the one thing I'd want to have in times like these.

In addition, I have attended numerous industry talks organised by CodeClan and have been assigned a mentor who works in the industry. All the feedback I have heard from people working at these companies has been overwhelmingly positive, and they are more than happy to hire CodeClan graduates. Hiring a CodeClan graduate is an altogether different package to hiring a university graduate, as most come with more experience in the working life, and multiple different skills that many fresh university graduates might not have had the chance to acquire yet. This seems to be recognised across the industry; I have also heard from people who work at tech companies who are not partners with CodeClan, and they are all happy with the CodeClan alumni they have hired.

To sum up, I do believe that what you get out of the course is a reflection of how much you put in. But even when faced with things like Covid-19, which no one could have predicted, CodeClan have continued to deliver a great standard of teaching and form a supportive and encouraging environment for all to learn. Personally, the decision to change careers and come to CodeClan was one of the best I have ever made. I have developed an incredible number of skills, become more confident and made many close friends; I knew exactly what to expect from the course in terms of its contents and learning objectives, but I've gained much more.

Avoid CodeClan Edinburgh like the plague, the students in my cohort were all sold dreams before joining but little was actually delivered. Prior to joining the school, its staff create an impression that the studying here is highly respectable and the... Read More students are sought after in an industry "that has more jobs than applicants". The instructors are the only good thing about CodeClan, most of them really do care and deliver good fundamental education but nothing more than a basic introduction, you spend all your time create inventory systems. The support services are a joke, students were promised networking opportunities and speed interviews with world class companies. For my cohort, only 7/8 companies actually showed to the speed interviews and of them and only one actually hired one of the students. The rest of us get emails from support services asking about our interest, only for them to disappear for months on end. The staff make you feel like you should be grateful for being there and run the school like a cult, you would think they all forgot that shoulds pay in excess of £6,000+ to study.

- There is next to no real support following graduation
- Employers do not value certificates from Codeclan
- Out of a class of 20, only 2 got jobs(one from the school and one went back to their old company).
- CodeClan say 6 months after graduation 90% have jobs, the same could be said for any group of people over a 6 month period.
- CodeClan like to be cryptic e.g. they dont mention what type of jobs
- The School is run like a cult, all the staff convey the same message, all create a picture of an industry/opportunities that isnt true. It is so easy to get sucked in to their lies.
- CodeClan dont mark or grade you. everybody is equal whether you have no ability or not, you'll graduate.
- The CEO Melinda is simply on another planet.
- Promised 10 companies at speed interviews: 7 showed up, 1 left immediately, 5 did not hire nor were in positions to hire (they came simply to talk to us).

Advice to any students thinking about joining:
- DONT, save yourself £6500 and get a codecademy account, learn the basics, attend a codebar.io event and just ask someone to be your mentor (can help you, if you get stuck on a concept)
- Understand, the average graduate takes a junior role with a junior salary (avoid if you have kids and live month to month)
- If you really want a "school" vibe and want to do it in edinburgh, the universities will give you a masters for roughly the same amount ( and people actually respect it).

I wish I could take them to court for fraud and misrepresentation.

The course was ok. They went over three modules; Ruby, JS and Java. The Ruby module is treated as an introduction to coding and its principles, however it should be noted that Ruby is useless and no longer used (by majority companies or programmers ).... Read More The React/JavaScript they taught was based on previous releases, instructors taught the class about class components instead of react hooks and functional components. (class components are harder, less efficient and often require duplication of code). The Java module is ok. The teaching staff are great, energetic and keen to help. The facilities are clean and up to date.

Unfortunately the school provides no more than a basic programming introduction which enables you to create inventory management apps in the three programming languages named above - this could also be taught following a youtube tutorial. Students are advised that they will be equiped with tech skills to get a tech role - this is a well constructed lie.

The average codeclan graduate is only qualified for basic entry level "junior" role which anybody of the street could get, as often no programming background is required for this. Most students leave professional jobs to undertake a course at codeclan do not realise the average graduating salary is £21,000 - 23,000. Most students also do not realise that a masters degree is only £300 more expensive than what codeclan charge.
Students that get "good jobs" often have a background within tech prior to joining codeclan.

The careers service/support is nothing more than a scam. Jobs are posted in online job boards, these posting are then forwarded to students suggesting the school has a unique relationship to leverage and if interested please email me your cv. This is because the school operates a recruitment business where they charge a finders fee.

Post graduation theres is next to no contact, and the little contact there is, is for "gimmicky"/low hanging fruit esk tactics e.g. come hear a talk about fair pay in the workplace, how to start a union, how to improve your mental health (basic talks such as you should breath, you should exercise).
Also CodeClan DOES NOT grade ANY work, everyone that starts the course gets a certificate. Employer obviously love this. I feel like i have been scammed.

For 3 years before I've done CodeClan I have been trying to learn how to code. I knew a lot of the information delivered in the course even before I joined, but I didn't know how to put everything together until I did the course. CodeClan have got teaching... Read More people the basics down to a T. The course is really well thought out and it's structured in such a way that even a computer illiterate would come out with a pretty comprehensive view of how coding works. The classes are very well structured and there is nothing about my learning journey I can complain about.

Getting support from the career staff on the other side is a total mess. We had a careers week mid-course and that just put everyone in our cohort in a panic state. We've been told to make a LinkedIn profile but were given no guidance for it, and the main focus has just been on building a CV, which had to follow their own template. I think I was lucky for getting a job with a company from Speed Networking, because I can see my career progression turning into a nightmare otherwise. I am in touch with a few other alumni and some of them are still looking even though they graduated more than 3 months ago! I thought when I enrolled in the course that the reason I'm paying a huge heap of money was because they were good at getting people jobs. But apart from Speed Networking I haven't seen or heard about people getting hired via CodeClan in any other way. They attempt to get partner companies to hold talks and come and meet students, but there's not much point to it because those companies aren't usually looking to hire.

As with any other thing, you get out of it what you put into it. I was desperate for change when I started the course and that motivated me to go beyond just attending class. The extra things you do set you apart, just like with any other learning institution and I don't see why people have different expectations from this course. Bottom line is, they promise to teach you the basics of coding and not a job. So in my view they delivered.

A great course that I relocated to Edinburgh for (it came that highly recommended by a friend in the tech industry in Scotland). Prior to this course I had rarely dealt with any serious tech other than the standard office stuff. I found the course well... Read More planned, a good pace and intensive - but with great support. It has opened a new career up for me. I would highly recommend.

On the 1st of October, I moved to Glasgow from London to start the CodeClan course.
When I started the course, Code was just colours and jibrish for me, and now I am a fully qualified Software Developer, who can read and write code, and think of an idea... Read More and make it a reality.

Let me start with Steve the legend, our instructor that taught us how to code from week one, Git and Ruby, until week sixteen, final full-stack project Java & React.
Steve took very complicated examples and explained it to us in a way that was clear, and made us visualise it so it was very easy to understand, and if you didn't understand Steve would spend 1 on 1 time with you and until you got it.

All the instructors are legends in codeclan, they are all very helpful, supportive and always have time to hear my crazy ideas, not only listen to my ideas but provided me with advice on how to code them into a real product.

Lorrian Rew shocked me with the level of support and assistance she gave us, she basically helped all of us make a CV from scratch, taught us how to be interviewed, arranged speed networking and applied for jobs on our behalf, I am still shocked by the level of support, you can not even dream of this level of support and guidance.
Melinda the CEO gave us an empowering and an inspiring presentation about how to present and sell yourself and sell ideas and products, it has really changed the way I present and public speak forever, she gave us tips and told us the secrets of the trade, really invaluable session,

she also met with me to hear my ideas and she gave me really good advice and pointed me in the right direction.
A massive thank you to all the people who supported me.

So the conclusion is that it has been really really great, the best thing I have ever done!
CodeClan thank you very very much, I am forever Grateful for what you have given me.

So after having a read of some of these reviews of the course I thought I would share my experience. I agree with some of the reviews around better support needed but to be quite honest the only person thats going to influence your future is you yourself.... Read More Im a big believer in that, I understand that codeclan offers employer meetups and speed networking but at the end of the day there is only so much they can teach you and source for you in the 16 weeks that your with them. For people that are completely new to coding this would be great as a skill bump and perspective entry point into the market. I went from knowing nothing about code to working on some pretty crazy stuff i'm currently not allowed to talk about for nda and a whole bunch of other reasons in the course of 18 weeks.

When it comes to the course for the money you pay and the time you dont waste at uni couldn't commend them enough. I was faced with the prospect of wanting to code but leaving uni at the age of 29+ with my second degree and a shit load of debt which wasn't an option. Codeclan facilitated the learning with four great and welcoming instructors which to this day dont know who they were so patient with 30+ people that had no idea how to code :) but again they were great.

As for the job side of things this is were I would agree a little more has to be done. Lorraine was great with intros, prepping us for everything but I would say the jobs pool aims fairly low considering the entry level position im in now. It was great for interview experience but after going through and listening to what some of the companies were looking for and their starting salaries would say not feeling forced into deciding from their employer pool, payed off big time.

All I can say its by far the best time to get in as a junior in the last 3 months since leaving I have received 43 emails asking for interviews.

Hope this review helped someone out there make that decision as its a crazy trip from zero to software developer but it was by far one of the most constructive moments of my life.

I attended CodeClan Glasgow in late 2018, at first the course seemed great. Great instructors, great prospects. As we progressed through the course we quickly realised what a complete joke CodeClan is. The learning itself was fine and can't praise the... Read More instructors enough, however all the support staff are more than useless. They promise all these jobs and this wonderful "Speed Networking" event with 20 world class employers. In reality its more like 3 or 4 call centres looking for cheap labour to maintain out dated software. The jobs board had 1 Glasgow based job on it for most of the duration of the course, for a couple weeks it did go up to 2 but the extra job was a tech support job. When ever this was mentioned to staff we were made to feel like the bad guys, made to feel like we were being ungrateful. The learning environment is hardly what your'e promised either, it's actually still a building site with constant drilling, hammering and disruption. To add to the chaos our entire floor flooded with drain water, I think this still hasn't been fixed. The lack of coordination CodeClan has is actually laughable at times, we had students in our cohort emailing the jobs team about a job in a remote location only to be ignored for 2 weeks and then on one the few occasions when they did show face in Glasgow, they asked if anyone was interested. There are 5 people working on jobs and employer networking and from what we saw, it's a complete waste of 5 salaries, better use of the money would making the course cheaper. In our cohort there are only 2 people with jobs and they both came off their own back. Melinda the "CEO" is a joke as well, she puts on this fake persona about being a world leader etc etc, the truth is she will run CodeClan into the ground. The course is only 16 weeks but Melinda was in multiple times to do "damage control" but just made things worse. Blaming everyone except herself, throwing the instructors under the bus when they're the only thing holding this fragmented joke of a company together. In my opinion avoid CodeClan like the plague, spend the money on doing an HND and go into a junior role that way. I really wanted to like CodeClan, and I have made some great friends but it's not what you're sold and you'll be left vastly disappointed.

I've just graduated from the academy and have very fresh impressions about the program, team and instructors.
The idea for the course is great but i have the feeling that we were part of experiment supported by the local political party and some businesses.... Read More The program and the materials were not very well structured with many wired and not clear explanations of the terminologies and algorithms. Most of the tutors were not experienced in teaching adults. There is a big administrative team working mainly to make good marketing PR profile of the boot camp to be able to sell the course and the students after that. There was not good team work and supportive environment and the tutors don't really care about this at all. If you don't have at least one year of experience in coding before to go to the course is very unlikely to learn something which you can really be able to use. Supporting career team is useless after the graduation. It's very hard to get any information or job support from them. For now i can say that it's not worthy the big fee and the time which i had to sacrifice.