STEM

University of San Diego Partners with Thinkful for Online Tech Training

• By Rhea Kelly
• 06/05/19

The University of San Diego Division of Professional and Continuing Education is working with online coding school Thinkful to provide job training for high-demand tech careers in the greater San Diego area. The goal: to foster "a new generation of web developers, software engineers and data scientists who can meet the demands of the rapidly growing tech community," according to a news announcement.

The program will begin with a Full Stack flex course, covering development fundamentals such as HTML, CSS, APIs, GitHub, Node.js, React, data structures and algorithms. The university will likely add Engineering Immersion and Data Science flex courses at a later date. Courses last six months and are delivered in a flex format that allows learners to keep their existing jobs while training for the next step in their careers. Students retain lifetime access to the curriculum.

Students also receive career services training from Thinkful, as well as access to the company's hiring network. Those who complete the program earn a certificate from USD's Division of Professional and Continuing Education, and are eligible for Thinkful's job guarantee service, which offers a full tuition refund if students are not offered a qualifying position within six months of graduation.

"We saw an opportunity to close the skills gap in an area that is projecting growth more than double the average rate for all occupations," said Andy Drotos, director of professional and public programs at USD's Division of Professional and Continuing Education, in a statement. "There will be a need for an additional 24,000 web developers over the next 10 years and we found the perfect partner to help us place new boot camp graduates into the marketplace."

For more information, visit the university website.