The Best Buckinghamshire Coding Bootcamps Of 2023

Founders and Coders is a 16 week bootcamp course, that ensures you develop the skills to become a software developer. The first eight weeks are focused on learning the principles of JavaScript (that can be applied to other programming languages), as well as using popular frameworks such as React and Express. This includes two days each week of mini projects in a group of four to put what was learnt into practice. The latter eight weeks are spent working on two four-week projects, one of which is for an actual client.

The curriculum is open source, mostly based on contributions from previous alumni, and is improved after each cohort based on Agile principles. There is a course facilitator that oversees the process, whilst for the first eight weeks there are mentors from the previous cohort to coordinate the self learning.

I would highly recommend the course - it teaches you the technical as well as the personal skills required to become a software developer. Being able to learn in a safe environment, with support from your peers and the mentors, was invaluable. Although it was intense, and a lot of information to take in, it was definitely a rewarding experience. Our cohort also became a close knit group that still meet quite often as well!

Founders and Coders provided me with the groundwork to pursue my career in the tech industry, and I will always be grateful that I was welcomed into such an amazing community.

• In person bootcamp. I don’t see how I would have been able to progress and stay on it working from home
• Culture. The teachers and students of my batch were great and the learning atmosphere was fantastic. The whole team behind Le Wagon is brilliant and making the 9 tough weeks a great experience. There is always someone to speak to if you struggle with the process or have questions about career paths after Le Wagon. They offer fun activities for all students (pilates on Tuesday, outings, networking events) and work very hard on making the students experience a good one.
• I’m above the average age of students and was one of the older ones in my batch. There was no point during the 9 weeks that I felt I didn’t fit in and I would recommend this bootcamp to any age group interested in learning how to code.
• Structure of learning. The way the curriculum is set up is brilliant and clear. There is a lot of focus on Ruby and I personally would have liked to see more Python being incorporated to match the skills needed to find a job after the bootcamp. At the end of the bootcamp students work on a 2 weeks project and it is impressive to see what you can do after 9 weeks at Le Wagon. 
• Alumni network. The tens (hundreds??) of thousands students that graduated from Le Wagon all over the world have the opportunity to keep in touch via slack – there is a forum on which you can ask coding questions when you are stuck – a careers forum  - women in tech forum etc. I found this platform extremely helpful during my job search and to speak with likeminded people.

• 93% employment rate / 3 months to find a job. I assume this statistic may need to be adjusted for 2023. From my batch of nearly 40 I know that the vast majority did not manage to get a junior/graduate/early career developer role within 3 months. Some people got part time employment and became teaching assistants at the school after graduating or did part time jobs to pay the bill but from what I can see nearly all graduates are still looking for a developer job 3 months after graduating. The job search is tougher than I had anticipated as junior developers often are required to have 2+ years developer experience and graduate roles are very competitive (hundreds of candidates for 1 spot). It seems that product management roles or support engineer roles (careers that don’t only code) are easier to get.
• Batchsize. We were nearly 40 students on the batch – imaging working on complex challenges with 40 people in the back. I mostly worked with my noise cancelling headphones on as I wouldn’t have been able to concentrate otherwise.
• Skill levels. It seems that students are selected by keeping quantity rather than quality in mind. I have witnessed students in other batches struggle with basic computer literacy and language barriers. I’m not sure how students are selected for the bootcamp but can see advantages of having a stricter process in place.
• Collaboration with employers. While I did Le Wagon there was not opportunity for an apprenticeship and work placement post bootcamp. I know a lot of other bootcamps work in a way where you apply for the bootcamp AND a company and you start working in the company right after graduation. If I were to do it all again I would try to get into a bootcamp that offers work placement (though they are harder to get into and the interview process takes much longer)
• Classroom learning. The lecturers were clearly very skilled in all things coding and have deep knowledge of web development. Unfortunately, that is sometimes not enough to be a great teacher – some lecturers were not able to read the room (majority of students struggling to understand topics), moved through the topics very quickly or found it difficult to explain topics to students with no previous knowledge. My advice to students would be to ask, ask and ask. As soon as something is unclear ask the teacher questions. Most of the time other students will be having the same questions and if you get lost in the first 20 minutes of a lecture it will be very difficult to keep up. I don’t know how much pedagogic training teachers are getting but I feel this would be helpful

• DO THE PREWORK – all of it (especially the Codeacademy Ruby course). This was such a fundamental basis and without it you will have a hard time especially at the start
• Ask questions and make use of the teaching assistants and teachers to clarify concepts you are struggling with
• Have fun and connect with your fellow students – the emotional support and networking opportunities you get from fellow students is second to none
• Give it your all.