Dev Academy vs University Part IV: It’s adaptive

*Cost of University is the average cost of 4 year Engineering degrees at Otago, Waikato, Canterbury, Auckland and Massey Universities. **Universities do not track or release rates of graduates landing a job in their field. Data released by MOE in 2013 showed that 53% of Bachelor’s degree holders were in employment one year after study. This did not specify whether they were working in the field they had studied. ***Dev Academy’s hire rate is based on students finding a job as a junior developer within 4 months of graduating.

Enspiral Dev Academy is an 18 week coding bootcamp based in Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand.

Why choose Enspiral Dev Academy?

The table above shows the difference between studying to become a web developer at Dev Academy vs University. This blog series investigates why you might want to choose Dev Academy, including It’s faster, It’s cheaper, You can get a job out of it, and continuing with reason 4: It’s adaptive.

It’s adaptive

Universities are operating on a model of education that is centuries old. The system is outdated and struggles to adapt to suit 21st century learners in a modern and rapidly changing economy. This is reflected in universities’ worsening staff to student ratios, their unilateral drop in international rankings since 2013, staff cuts and predicted drop in student numbers all while the costs of university rise and the size of loans increase.

As Grant Davidson, Chief Executive of Skills Active, notes, “The Productivity Commission has just released its report on tertiary education, essentially finding that the current system is broken. Some can’t find a study option that suits their preferences while others are excluded from participating altogether.”

While there is a lot of social emphasis on university being the ‘correct’ post-secondary training option, many students are finding smarter, faster, job-ready ways to learn the skills they need.

Dev Academy’s relationship with employers and tech companies, and our agile methodology, means we can readily adapt to the needs of the industry to ensure students are always receiving relevant education tailored for the real world. This is why we emphasise “soft skills” (i.e. communication, dispute resolution and emotional intelligence), because employers tell us that these are the skills that make technically capable people far more hireable.

Another example is that students learn full stack JavaScript at Dev Academy, which Stack Overflow’s 2017 developer survey (‘the largest developer survey ever conducted’) showed was the most commonly used and most popular language for developers. We also use agile methodology and teach in sprints. Our teaching and content is tailored to reflect the working world.

Dev Academy was born as a startup and has the hunger, agility and speed to reflect the working world and give students the education they need in the format that best suits them.

Check out Dev Academy educator Don’s blog for an example of how we adapt our programme: Dev Academy’s Living Curriculum.

Web development is creative, it’s ever-evolving, it’s challenging and it’s about problem solving. If you think Dev Academy might be the place for you, head to our website and apply today for the next Auckland or Wellington cohort.

Check out the next reason to choose Dev Academy: It’s about people.