Thursday, December 8, 2011

Teaching Ventures Catch the Programming Wave

"With computer programmers in demand, new start-ups that aim to train people in coding skills are also becoming hot properties...

VALLEY

"Ventures that teach computer programming, design and other once-nerdy skills to the masses are surfacing nationwide and drawing interest from Bay Area investors. Many of the investors want to cash in on a technology-driven sea change in learning that will allow consumers to cultivate a broad array of skills online and help ease Silicon Valley's talent crunch.

"Treehouse Island Inc. launched last month with $600,000 from West Coast investors including Greylock Partners and Social+Capital Partnership. The service, which starts at $25 a month, teaches online classes in subjects like Web development and building mobile apps. Users rack up virtual badges for completing quizzes and code challenges.

"Competitor Codecademy raised $2.5 million from Union Square Ventures, SV Angel and others in October. The site's free online exercises have been accessed nearly 30 million times since its August launch, says co-founder Zach Sims.

"Physical schools are sprouting up, too. General Assembly, which teaches Web development and design classes in New York City, raised $4.25 million in September from venture firm Maveron LLC, Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos and others.

"The services are taking hold as computer programming continues to gain allure and relevance amid the rise of mainstream tech companies like Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. and almost every industry going digital. But despite the fact colleges are churning out more programmers, many fast-growing Silicon Valley companies say they still can't find enough of them.

"Overall, the number of students who received a bachelor's degree in computing rose nearly 11% in 2010, according to the Computer Research Association, which tallied 12,501 degrees at the nearly 200 institutions it tracks. But the number of U.S. high schools offering introductory computer science dropped to 69% in 2011 from 78% in 2005, according to Computer Science Teachers Association. The trade group attributes the drop to a decline in electives caused by budget constraints at school districts nationwide..."

Wall Street Journal

1 comment:

  1. interesting blog. It would be great if you can provide more details about it. Thanks you


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