UM Offers Coding Boot Camp to Learners Statewide

Montana Code School will offer an 18-week boot camp this summer.

MISSOULA – Zach Falen works as a senior full-stack engineer and cloud architect for the Seattle office of a global consulting company. It’s a pretty tech-savvy job for a guy who earned a marketing degree from the University of Montana in 2017, and he contends the opportunity may never had happened if he hadn’t also beefed up his resume with a three-month boot camp at UM’s Montana Code School. He was part of the inaugural class in 2015.

So would he recommend the Montana Code School?

“That’s the understatement of the century,” said Falen, a self-described digital nomad who now has the freedom to work pretty much anywhere with internet. “It gave me the baseline skill set so that I could jump in and be useful on more or less any product team. It changed the way that I approach problems and work completely. And it opened up so many opportunities.”

Now, after a COVID-induced hiatus, Montana Code School is back. UM’s Missoula College and Promineo Tech have teamed to offer software development education accessible to learners across Montana. The new 18-week boot camp will prepare graduates to fill open roles within a tech industry that the global pandemic has accelerated due to the forced digitization of business and commerce.

The Montana Code School’s back-end program launches June 15. The front-end program begins July 22.

“We’re particularly excited that the new programs we are launching are being offered online, enabling Montanans from anywhere in the state to gain the skills necessary to embark on rewarding new tech careers,” said Paul Gladen, a co-founder of the Montana Code School and director of UM’s Accelerate Montana.

Upon successful completion of the course, students are equipped with the necessary skills to apply for a variety of entry-level roles within the industry. The national average base salary is $62,000. Previous graduates of the courses have landed jobs as Java developers, software engineers, back-end developers, application developers and front-end developers.

Gladen said a panel of industry professionals has reviewed and confidently approved that the curriculum, which teaches the technologies and methodologies that are looked for by hiring managers within the industry.  

“We’re very excited to be involved with the relaunch of Montana Code School,” said Nick Suwyn, president of Promineo Tech. “Bringing our experience in delivering online coding boot camps will only add to the amazing work this team already has accomplished in Montana. Additionally, we’re thrilled to expand Montana Code School’s reach to the edges of the state and beyond.”

Students have the opportunity to optimize the resources the programs offer throughout their time as a student – through to graduation and the transition into the job search and interviewing process. The schedule of the programs is flexible and can supplement a full-time workload. As part of their training, students dedicate 1.5 hours to live, personally tailored micro-lectures in their online classroom, and an additional 13 to 18 hours of self-paced learning each week.

“Missoula College is committed to providing career-focused, accessible education to Montana citizens,” MC Dean Tom Gallagher said. “Our collaboration with Montana Code School and Promineo Tech provides a new point of access for individuals seeking to pursue high-demand, high-wage jobs in the technology sector.”

He said the transition from in-person boot camps to being fully online was motivated by safety guidelines due to the pandemic, but it also offers increased accessibility and flexibility to achieve in-demand education. Learners statewide and nationwide can register for the coding boot camps and explore the opportunities that software development has to offer.

To learn more about attending or offering a coding boot camp, visit https://www.montanacodeschool.com.

“Code School really worked for me,” said Falen, who currently chooses to work in his hometown of Missoula. “I work for a marketing agency now, but the type of work I do is a direct result of having learned how to code.”

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About Montana Code School: Launched in 2015 as a program of MonTEC, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization affiliated with UM, the Montana Code School’s mission is to grow the pipeline of technology talent in Montana. Montana Code School has trained nearly 200 individuals via full-time and part-time boot camps in Missoula and Bozeman, with most progressing into rewarding and challenging new career opportunities with tech companies across Montana.

About Promineo Tech: Promineo Tech is an education-as-a-service provider that partners with community colleges to offer coding boot camps and related technology training. Its mission is to make technology education affordable, accessible and low risk for everyone so that anyone has the opportunity to improve their lives through learning. They teach people the skills needed to enter and be successful in high-demand technology fields such as the software development industry. Learn more at PromineoTech.com.

Read a 2017 story about the Montana Code School.

Contact: Paul Gladen, director of UM Accelerate Montana and Blackstone LaunchPad, paul.gladen@umontana.edu.