Enspiral Dev Academy opens enrolments for 2020

For immediate release: Short-course intensive web development training organisation Enspiral Dev Academy opens enrolments for 2020

Applications up over 30% year-on-year for the industry outlier, whilst enrolments in traditional tertiary education are falling

Enspiral Dev Academy has been teaching career changers in-demand, work-ready technology skills since its inception in 2013. The NZQA-accredited, private training establishment Enspiral Dev Academy with campuses in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) and Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) has graduated over 500 students to meet the local demand for tech talent. The social enterprise, which focuses on increasing diversity in the tech sector, has seen a 31% increase in enrolments (year-on-year 2017, 2018, 2019) since becoming eligible for student loans in October 2018—and has just opened applications for 2020 intakes. In 2019, 90% of places were filled by June.

Hailed as one of the ‘new models of tertiary education’ by the Productivity Commission, Dev Academy has been providing work-ready full stack junior developers for Aoteroa’s thriving tech industry. Its graduates include more than 50% of people identifying as women, and has surpassed population parity for its students from a Pasifika and Māori background (7% and 18% respectively).

Enspiral Dev Academy is a 15-week intensive, full-immersion web development bootcamp where students learn by doing. They leave with all the fundamentals of software development needed to be employed as junior developers. In addition to the technical curriculum, the students also learn other transferable skills, like those outlined by recruitment platform Indeed.com: communication, teamwork, dependability, adaptability and leadership. This is as part of the non-technical component of the curriculum, referred to as Human Skills.

Says recent graduate Des Whelan of the course: “Dev Academy has been a life changing experience. I had extremely high expectations coming in for what this course would provide me, and these expectations were exceeded. I feel ready for a significant change in my life and career, after a surprisingly short space of time. I cannot speak highly enough of the experience and the people I met along the way.”

The learning environment is modelled to set people up to go straight into work. Says recent graduate Meghan De Klerk of the learning environment: “The quality of what you learn and the way it is taught is at a very high standard and done differently, in a way that is set in a more real-life situation. The environment [...] makes you feel like you can be yourself and be accepted.”

According to Careers New Zealand, information technology is one of the six major skills shortages in 2018. It is listed in detail on Immigration New Zealand’s Long Term Skills Shortage List, where ‘IT, electronics and telecommunications’ fill a whole page listing the many roles vacant.

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Notes:

• The remote preparation phase for the first intake of 2020 starts on 11 November; in-person bootcamp starts on 6 January. For the second intake, the preparation phase starts on 3 February 2020 and bootcamp on 16 March 2020. More dates to be announced. Enrolments now open at https://devacademy.co.nz/apply-now/
• In 2017 the New Zealand Productivity Commission referenced Dev Academy in their New Models of Tertiary Education report as an “example of disruptive innovation in education” and employers interviewed for their submission to the enquiry, expressed their desire to hire from the academy: - “a number of technology companies have remarked that university computer science graduates are not really employable as computer programmers because they have been taught using obsolete technology. One put it bluntly, “we would hire someone out of Enspiral’s Dev Academy before we took a uni grad.”
• Since its inception, Dev Academy has been challenging the institutional dominance of traditional universities. Comprised of a 5-10 week preparation module (either full-time or part-time), and a 9-week intensive in-class bootcamp (60+ hours a week), the programme is a of the cost of a software engineering degree and is delivered in 1/12th amount of time—with 72 credits towards an NZQA-recognised qualification.
• In September 2018: the same week New Zealand’s top universities fell out of the top 200 global rankings, Dev Academy was granted Student Loan eligibility for its unique approach to tertiary education, a huge milestone for a once-small Wellington startup. For the relatively new school, which focuses on work-ready tech skills as well as advanced interpersonal skills for 21st-century jobs, this marked a significant turning point and milestone in the education sector.

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