The hype is fading for coding "boot camps," for-profit U.S. schools offering graduates entry into the lucrative world of software development.
Closures are up in a field now jammed with programs promising to teach students in just weeks the skills needed to get hired as professional coders. So far this year, at least eight schools have shut down or announced plans to close in 2017, according to the review website Course Report.
Two pioneers in the sector, San Francisco's Dev Bootcamp and The Iron Yard of Greenville, South Carolina, announced in July that they are being shut down by their corporate parents.
Others, including market leaders like General Assembly, a New York firm that has raised $120 million in venture capital, are shifting their focus to corporate training.
Competition has begun to squeeze out players in a field now crowded with nearly 100 academies in the United States and Canada, more than double the number just three years ago. Many in the industry expect more closures as the space begins to consolidate around dominant schools able to produce top-flight coders.
“Quality is going to win out in this industry, but it's going to be turbulent for a while,” said Anthony Hughes, chief executive of Tech Elevator, a coding boot camp in Cleveland.
Fed by growing demand for coders and more than $250 million in venture funding, boot camps have mushroomed in recent years. Average tuition is just over $11,000 for a 14-week course, but can climb as high as $24,000 for longer programs, according to Course Report.
The training is aimed mainly at professionals looking to switch careers as well as students lacking the money or interest in attending a four-year college.
Some schools have students report to their classrooms; others offer their courses exclusively online. Students are prepared for entry-level technical roles such as junior developers building apps and websites, or as quality assurance engineers sniffing out bugs in code.
Collectively, these boot camps expect to graduate 23,000 students this year, more than double the 10,333 students that graduated in 2015, according to Course Report, which says starting salaries average around $69,000.