Wild Code School restructures to accommodate post-Lockdown learning preferences

All 13 of its campuses in France, as well as locations in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Lisbon, Madrid and Milan will reopen with the launch of new full-time and part-time courses that deliver full literacy in full-stack web and app development, and the necessary skills for a career in tech. 

Following the success of the two fully-remote courses that started during lockdown, the technology bootcamp is permanently flexing its services to accommodate the needs of post-lockdown students. The new fully remote courses, full-time and part-time, will also begin in October.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic forced Wild Code School to close its campuses and shift to fully-remote learning, providing a dynamic and highly-creative remote working environment, using tools such as video conferencing seminars, online panel discussions with industry experts, and real-life projects provided by businesses. This environment will continue, but following lockdown remote students are also able to use campus facilities and attend events when they choose to. 

Katie Olsen, EU Director at Wild Code School, says students and teachers alike have been impressed with how an engaging and productive environment can be achieved remotely:

“As technology educators it is important for us to be agile and adapt our courses to what students want – and while there is still a good proportion of students who enjoy the physical interaction of campus learning, we have shown that we can replicate the energy, support and engagement of our courses in a remote environment and understand that is more convenient for some,” she says.

“The tech industry has always offered flexible careers that allow for remote working, so it is right that we are providing this service also.”

Leonore Ghisalberti, one of the students who started the first fully-remote course in April, opted to change career from the textiles industry to build a creative design agency and required further digital skills to complement her design credentials. She says the remote course is well thought out and works well for her:

“Rather than exercises, we are set ‘quests’ – five each week. These quests feel like ‘expeditions’, furthering the fun, playful and engaging atmosphere. 

“Each tutorial begins with the tutor asking what everyone has accomplished and encouraging us to speak up with any difficulties we’ve had since the last tutorial. This means we’ve really got to know each other, despite living across numerous different countries and never having met face-to-face.

“For me, the course workload is manageable because we are all working from home, so I have additional time to work on my business.”

Another student from the April lockdown course, Gladys Pascual, a chemical engineer working full time in Dublin, says that even before lockdown she was looking for a remote course: “I did not want to battle Dublin traffic in addition to my commute.

“On speaking with Wild Code School, I realised it was perfect. As unlike other online courses I looked into, you are given a mentor, so you are not on your own and are fully guided through the process.”

“All of our students have different reasons for wanted to move into coding and have varied backgrounds,” concludes Katie, “some are looking to gain new skills, others are looking to start their own businesses, and there are students like Gladys and Leonore who want to completely change their career and re-train in technology. We look forward to welcoming the next tranche of students in October and helping them to realise their individual ambitions.”

Some 90% of the more-than 3,000 ‘Wilders’ – as they describe themselves – who have completed the course are now working in tech, with some employed before even completing their course.