Off the beaten track: how alternative learning results in well-paid technical jobs

93% of technical students find work after taking accelerated courses at the Flatiron School.

How AI will revolutionize education
Shazam co-founder Dhiraj Mukherjee about the upcoming shift to lifelong learning in an interview at The Economist’s Innovation Summit 2018.

Alternative learning methods work. Just ask the graduates of the New York-based Flatiron School, who saw an employment rate of 93% in 2018, with an average starting salary of $ 74,566, according to recent data from Flatiron.

The Flatiron School offers accelerated educational programs in programming, data science, software engineering and UX / UI design. What distinguishes Flatiron students from schools offering similar courses is that students who graduate from Flatiron are able to complete courses in just six months, as well as on-land jobs through the school’s Career Services.

SEE: Technology in education: the latest products and trends (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

“It is possible to reinvent your career, and by extension, your life – without following traditional learning pathways,” said Adam Enbar, co-founder and CEO of Flatiron School. “Students usually go to Flatiron School for one of the following two reasons: they want to change their lives, or they want to change the world. The former group can be unhappy in their career. Many don’t earn enough or see no path to meaningful But often students who come to us already have great jobs with high salaries, but they don’t feel involved.

“The other reason students come to us is because they want to have an impact,” said Enbar. “Technological skills allow people to uniquely build products that can affect millions of lives and solve meaningful problems. Our graduates continue to do that kind of work and that is attractive to many people.”

The data from Flatiron considered the 813 students who participated in the school’s programs on campus (553) and online (260). Women represented 35% of the students in the report, which is important given that only 26% of all computer workers in 2018 were women, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology. This leap indicates that alternative education could be a successful path for women in technology, according to the report.

Of the 769 students who have graduated from campus or online, 86% have completed a job search. The cycle is defined as either accepting at least 180 days of continuous job search, accepting a qualifying full-time offer within a 180-day period, accepting a qualifying part-time job offer within a 180-day period, or an unqualified vacancy in the same time frame.

While Flatiron has 12 WeWork campuses across the country and in London, the most visited campus students were the Manhattan campus in New York City (40%), the Brooklyn campus in New York City (12%), Washington, DC campus (7%)), Houston campus (4%) and London campus (3%), according to the report.

Job results

The majority (81%) of the students who were looking for a job and who accepted job offers within the reporting period, followed a job in engineering. While 93% of job seekers said they accepted jobs within 365 days, more than half (62%) accepted jobs within 60 days and 42% accepted jobs in just 30 days, the report said.

The popularity in engineering jobs is reflected in the courses that Flatiron students have studied. 98% of all students passed a software engineering program. The other 2% was attributed to data science, the report found.

SEE: Tips for building a successful career as a software engineer (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

With data scientists and software engineers making Glassdoor’s 2019 list of best technical jobs, students are entering lucrative fields: the average starting wage for Flatiron students was $ 72,259 for online students and $ 75,642 for campus students, according to the report.

These graduates not only receive a healthy salary, they also save money by completing an accelerated program. The average cost of tuition, fees, costs and accommodation at public and private universities in the US in 2018 was $ 34,740 and $ 25,620 per year, respectively. The total average tuition fee for Flatiron students was $ 11,686, the report found.

With the cost of school and improvements in technology, alternative ways to higher education have become increasingly popular. The Flatiron report shows that these paths are not only easier to follow, but also effective.

“My advice is not to worry that your first job will fit perfectly – focus on hard work and staying positive. The job that you are likely to have in 20 years does not exist today. So optimizing for the perfect role or the perfect business hits “I mean nothing,” said Enbar. “Be good at whatever you do and opportunities will remain open to you. That’s why at Flatiron we don’t ask for test scores or GPAs – we look for passion and grit. If you work hard and remain positive, you’ll be able to learn everything and to do. ”

For more information, view 10 technologies that will have the most impact on higher education this year on TechRepublic.

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