There are a number of computer boot camps in California that authorities are threatening to close, because they have not obtained the proper licensing. These “coding boot camps” are designed to teach students how to write computer code that actually works in the modern industry, and these boot camps are quick-paced, trying to meet the demand for coders. The schools were reprimanded by the Bureau for Private Post-Secondary Education, and were issued citations. Six or more of these boot camps, or Programming Academies are they are officially called received citation letters. All were located in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The information was reported by Shereef Bishay, who has the oldest academy among the ones that were cited. Bishay’s school is the Dev Bootcamp, and it is a nine week program that he has been running for two years. The letter ordered the school to stop accepting students immediately, and also ordered the refund of tuition to past students until the licensing process was completed. This could be a major problem for these schools if the students that have already attended do not choose to pay the tuition again once the licensing has been achieved, or the money will not be paid at all if the school does not receive the licensing. This is a huge concern for Bishay and others, with the tuition cost looming at $12,000 per student.
Bishay said that his company is working very hard to satisfy state requirements for licensing. They are required to submit information like the school’s curriculum, the testing methods that they are using and the finish rate that they achieve, as well as other details required by the state. However, the logistics are overwhelming as the school currently has more than 60 people taking classes and hundreds more that were reserving classes throughout the Summer. Bishay said that suspending his program isn’t feasible. “A big problem for us is it’s such a huge life commitment. Our students, they quit jobs, they rearrange their lives around this, so shutting down would be catastrophic,” he said. “Our businesses might survive it, but it would definitely be catastrophic for the students.”