Saturday, March 04, 2017

The Coding School Model

Many electronic technician jobs do not require an AAS degree.  But these jobs do require certain knowledge and skills that can be taught in a shorter amount of time.  The jobs are usually related to manufacturing, service and repair, installation and field service.  It may be time for colleges to consider some kind of shorter certificate program that could put graduates to work sooner and fill all those available job openings.

This is being done right now to teach programming.  With so many programming jobs available there have not been enough college graduates to fill these good positions. This need has fostered the creation of coding schools, special for-profit organizations thaat teach programming.  These coding school programs typically last for 12 weeks and cost about $10K to $20K.  High cost for sure.

The result is that students learn basic programming skills fast and companies are hiring them into entry level programmer positions. The pay is good and the prospects for promotions are excellent based upon performance.

A recent Wall Street Journal article pointed out that today there are 91 full time coding "boot camps" in the U.S. These produced 18,000 graduates in 2016.  More are on the way.

What I am asking here is why not create a similar program for electronic techs?  This could be done by some entrepreneur who would create a program and a for-profit school.  Such a school would be competitive with community college programs so why not avoid this and create such a program inside your college.  It would bring in more students and fill the needs of some employers.  I visualize a 12-week program that would not be as expensive as the coding schools, maybe half of what they charge.

I am not sure all what such a program would teach.  Probably some fundamentals but heavy on the practical hands-on skills like soldering, test instrument use, and basic troubleshooting.  I will think about this and  put together an outline.  Let me know if you are interested.

While I was teaching at the local community college, we offered a one semester certificate program that ran 8 hours per day 5 days a week.  It was make up of standard courses taught on an accelerated basis.  It was too intense for many students and instructors.  But it was successful and graduates did get hired.  A program tailored to the available jobs is a better way to go.

With some electronic tech programs in decline this could be a way to solve the enrollment decreases.  Some promotional effort would be needed to find the students and let employers know about it.  That is always an issue but it is the same for promoting your existing program.  Nevertheless, it may be something to try if you need to stem the declines.  It is time to innovate.  Be bold.

What do you think?

10 comments:

Jimy said...

Programming and coding skills have kind of become essentials in today's world. They will never go in vain. Nice post.

ski bag said...

Programming degree is very much faamous these days due to the advancements in technology and mobile applications. Usually programmers are high earners now a days and i am glad that you chose a good field.

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