
A free full-time 7-week coding course in London  - dsofer
http://foundersandcoders.org/
======
dsofer
This is a course I am involved in, but I am hoping a free course of this kind
is unusual enough to be of interest to Hacker News readers.

~~~
netcan
It is, but this is a little light on information.

 _The course_ : What's the ciriculum. What's the structure. Will it be focused
on building a project? Is this one-on-one instruction, classroom based,
mentorship based, mostly self taught? What's the target/prerequisite level of
student experience?

 _The Free_ : How is it free? Donors? Volunteers? Is this the pilot for a for
profit project?

~~~
mrcdima
Here's another useful link
[http://camdencollective.co.uk/academy/](http://camdencollective.co.uk/academy/)
There's a video in there and some other current info.

The main website should incorporate more of this information though. Right now
details are scattered around twitter feeds, multiple websites, semi updated
pages and this thread (hn is probably the best source of info right now).

~~~
dsofer
This should now no longer be the case. There are links to both a FAQ to the
"Current course" materials on the website.

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woodylondon
Great idea! However, have you thought about a weekend / evening version for
people working, but wanting to get out and do their own thing? I would so love
to do this, but work full-time in a management role and the impossible just to
not work for 7 weeks. I have so many ideas, but never really coded before and
struggled with self learning.

~~~
dsofer
Thank you for the feedback. We will be doing more stuff later in the year. I
struggle with self learning, too. Peer pressure makes such a difference.
Please follow @selforganising for updates.

------
alexpogosian
This is a very interesting project. I wouldn't qualify since I've been working
as a web developer for several years. But I'd love to see something like this
in my home country (Republic of Georgia).

I wonder if it's possible to do it without any teaching experience?

~~~
keithpeter
I am a teacher and I have been involved with teacher training in the UK at
College and University level.

If you have been working with _others_ as a Web developer, you will have
acquired coaching skills and the ability to explain technical information.

I would suggest that you start with small groups of people (4 to 6) in a local
coffee bar gain experience as to the things they find difficult by using
materials easily available in the appropriate language.

A couple of workshops will give you an idea of what you need to focus on.

Basically, start and iterate. I hope the OP posts their materials as I think
this is a nice idea to start in other cities.

------
ruggeri
We (App Academy) did a free iOS course in 2013. It was fun and helped kick-
start our business. I hope you have the same experience!

We broke even because we were able to collect some placement fees from
companies that hired students. Even if we hadn't, the financial risk was not
super high, since our time was the biggest investment.

If people from the US are interested in a similar program, you might want to
look at [App Academy]([http://appacademy.io](http://appacademy.io)). Our class
is no longer truly free, but beside a refundable deposit, we don't collect any
tuition until a graduate finds a job (and none if they don't).

------
paul_f
Who is funding this project? Hard to believe anyone would run a free 7-week
course because they like to teach.

This is similar to a course taught by General Assembly here in the US, but
that course costs $11,500.

~~~
dsofer
We have a bit of funding from Collective, which is a project in Camden Town
offering free workspace and support to creative startups, which is in turn
funded by the Mayor of London.

I am not sure that what we are doing is exactly comparable to an offering like
General Assembly, which is a very well-structured course and has many links
with industry. What we are doing is much more seat of the pants. We are
grabbing learning resources off the web and stitching them together into a
patchwork of useful learning exercises and projects and holding it all
together with daily seminars, paired programming and code reviews. We hope
some of our students will be ready to apply for membership of Collective when
they finish the course and can bring new creative ideas and energy to Camden
Town.

~~~
alixaxel
This is so cool, well done!

------
atat
This looks like a great initiative! How much competition per space are you
expecting? Any chance of accepting text applications as well as video?

~~~
dsofer
At this point we are not sure, but since the HN posting the odds may be about
to lengthen. We will accept text applications if you have a good reason for
not doing a video.

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andrey-p
This is excellent, a friend of mine based in London was specifically looking
for a way to learn programming on the cheap. I've sent him the link.

One thing - you should probably add a loads more prominent link to the
foundersandcoders.org/intro page on the entry page - my friend isn't a
sceptical HN reader, and he would've missed that link (and loads of useful
information) very easily.

~~~
dsofer
Link added to navigation bar. Thanks for the suggestion :-)

------
ZenPro
This is outstanding; Providing for free what some startups are attempting to
charge >$15K for.

As a London-based startup employee (Marketing, Business Dev) it makes me proud
to point to these kinds of initiatives in my city.

If you need any additional teachers for marketing/pitching/sales/lean then
drop me a line. I already volunteer at Coder Dojo and am a mentor at a few
others.

~~~
dsofer
ZenPro, I really appreciate the feedback. Contact me. There's a link on the
website.

------
icedata
Curriculum looks similar to Coursera's Startup Engineering, which I am doing
(although it isn't currently officially offered). I think this is an
interesting initiative, would like to try something like this in Toronto.

~~~
dsofer
That is no coincidence. I organised a meetup for Startup Engineering last year
in the same place that I am now running Founders & Coders. It's a great
course. Good luck with it.

------
SidKetchum
Is it an entry-level course? Which are the skills that will be learned?

~~~
dsofer
It is entry level. Primarily, it's going to be JavaScript--both backend (node)
and frontend, plus HTML, CSS, and Git.

~~~
wyclif
Open to non-UK citizens?

~~~
dsofer
We will certainly consider applicants from overseas. We have a Russian, a
Greek and an Argentinian on the current course. Although it is mainly for
London residents, we might make exceptions--especially if you are interested
in setting up similar courses wherever you come from.

------
mistakoala
What have previous cohorts gone on to do?

~~~
dsofer
The first cohort graduated in February. One is interning as a developer at
Hogarth Worldwide--after only six weeks and from a standing start--but he was
an outlier.

Of the others, one has got a job with a tech startup, one is working as a
business analyst, one is freelancing with Google, some have returned to their
own startups from which they took a sabbatical to do the course--but none of
them are in pure developer roles.

We are not in the business of pretending we can turn people into software
developers in a few weeks. I am re-orienting the course away from the
unrealistic goal of turning out market-ready software developers and instead I
am aiming to jump-start people who want to work on their own projects.

This might kibosh my funding sources, but it seems to be a more interesting
and worthwhile direction to go in.

~~~
mistakoala
Sure. I like the sound of encouraging people who want to explore and jumpstart
their own projects. I feel that there's an implicit push by bootcamps to
acquire students who are certain about going on to developer roles, so to see
a programme welcoming students with ambiguous objectives is good to see.

------
weisser
Is this restricted to London residents?

~~~
dsofer
Mainly intended for London residents, but we would consider strong
applications from elsewhere.

