Vocational training camp or leading programming future: Degree education does not meet the atmosphere

Absrtact: The traditional higher education pays more attention to the theory, the relative contempt programming and so on practical application American Science and technology blog ReadWrite today, because the traditional higher education pay more attention to theory, relative contempt of programming and other practical applications, so that a variety of vocational education for the purpose of traditional higher education more emphasis on theory, Relative contempt programming and other practical applications

U.S. Science and Technology blog ReadWrite today, because the traditional higher education focus on the theory, relative contempt of programming and other practical applications, so that a variety of vocational education for the purpose of short-term programming training camp emerged, which may even become the future of programming talent is an important cradle.

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If you want to know what the Couba of the computer department are most afraid of, try this: This June, Google announced that it would no longer use GPA (average) as a recruiting reference indicator.

Laszlo Bock, senior vice president of Google Personnel, Razlo Burk the New York Times: "Our data suggest that GPA as an important reference indicator of recruitment is meaningless." ”

For those who see their scores in college, this is a sunny revelation. But if you keep your eye on the technology industry, you'll surely find this trend inevitable. This is also reflected in the side, the so-called professional Programmer's definition is also changing rapidly.

Civilian developers

When Google executives decide to look at the overall qualities of a candidate, not just the test scores, they expand the range from "all those who have degrees" to "all who are capable." As long as you have the ability to do what Google needs, they will no longer care whether you are programming in school or self-taught.

This has become a common technology industry, and "civilian programmers" (citizen developer) of the formulation. The term is created by Gartner, a market research firm, and simply refers to programmers who have no traditional programming education, but they use the same skills as the professional programmers who are trained in formal institutions.

Gartner predicted in 2011 that at least 25% of new enterprise applications will come from civilian programmers by 2014. Two years later, our hero programmer was a dropout from Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, and even Tumblr CEO David Kap (David Karp), who had never gone to college Zuckerberg.

The star Programmer's creativity and problem-solving abilities are not learned in school. As a result, Google will not be able to recruit talent when the score on the hero is completely understandable.

More jobs, less talent

If you want to learn a technique that allows you to get a well-paid job in a few months, you'll probably consider non-traditional programming education.

If you have completed your programming training program code fellows a 4-week training camp, you will receive a full refund if you do not find a 60,000-dollar salary within 6 months. American group buying website LivingSocial 2012 years of a campaign called Hungry Academy, spending money to get people to attend a 5-month training camp and learn how to program for LivingSocial.

Training camps and other forms of non-traditional programming education have all the clout to give promise. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 913,000 software programmers in the United States in 2010, and this figure is expected to grow 30% from 2012-2020. In the same period, all U.S. jobs were expected to increase by only 14%.

As our reliance on technology grows, so does the need for programmers. Now there are a lot of ordinary programmers can get four or five companies of the employment notice, means that many companies do not recruit people.

The rise of self-study movement

The increasing number of courses, as well as the increasing availability of convenience, have also helped in self-study programming. In addition, the amount of university student loans is getting smaller, which makes the attraction of self-study further increased.

Ryan Carson, a programming education firm Treehouse CEO Ryan Carlsen, said the company's active paying students had reached 37,000, equivalent to the size of a large university. This, he argues, is entirely predictable, as companies such as Treehouse can offer better programming education than traditional universities.

"Computer degrees are nonsense. He said, "I have this degree, so I know." ”

What's the difference? Carlson says Treehouse has data that can prove that students are already capable of practical work, but traditional colleges are not. They do this through a set of integration systems, and all the students who complete the task in treehouse can get the appropriate scores.

"We've put thousands of students on the job of programmers, and employers have been giving us feedback," he said. "So, we dare say, if you get 1500 points in treehouse, we can send you to a job with a success rate of 80%." And now universities can't do that. ”

The dilemma of traditional education

Unsurprisingly, while entrepreneurs such as Carlson are bullish on non-traditional training programs, college professors remain confident about the long-term prospects for computer degree education.

However, Francois Pitt, a senior lecturer at the University of Toronto, Francois Pitt that programming training camps will not pose a challenge to computer degrees because they have very different goals.

"It doesn't pose a big challenge to us, it's just a complement." "Programming is just a starting point for computer science, and we're not only teaching students how to write code, we're also going to look at the programs and problems they solve." ”

Peter believes that the difference between having a computer degree and knowing how to program is like the difference between a professional writer and an understanding of writing. The point is no longer that you know English, but that you have interesting ideas and know how to better organize your language.

Peter's description of the deep theory of computer science is idealized, but students need to consider the difference. Do they want to know more about computer science, or do they just want to get a job soon?

"People involved in these projects must understand that they are not the same as the education they receive." Computer science is not just about programming. ”