This is really a great initiative, too bad most of these programs require moving to SF for a few weeks, which puts working adults / parents / anyone who wants to do a career change practically out of the picture. I wish there was something like this here in Atlanta, I know many people that would have signed up
It's not just the move that puts this program out of the reach of people with kids or other commitments -- it's the entire schedule. 12 weeks of 10am to 9pm, Monday through Saturday? This is basically a way of saying (whether intentionally or not), do not bother to apply if you are not young. Do not bother if you place too high a value on spending time with your spouse, or your kids, or your girlfriend, or your boyfriend, or your aging grandmother. Do not bother if you've already committed some of your waking hours to serving your community or your church or a part time job that you use to pay the bills.
Don't get me wrong: Tech training is incredibly valuable, and is increasingly critical to the economy. And I believe intensive training has merit. This program may well produce some stars. But why can't it do the same on a 9-6p M-F schedule? What's less intensive about that?
So I hope this doesn't become a model. Because we don't gain much by reinforcing the stereotype that technology is just for young single people who would rather spend the night in front of their computers than with their friends and families. If you want to broaden the appeal of Web development, let's start training real people.
I would guess that the major alternative for most of the applicants for this program would be studying on their own. You can take as long as you'd like to learn. Doing that, you can spend as much time as you'd like with friends/family, doing community work or anything else you choose. If you're motivated (and possibly unemployed), doing whatever it takes over a 3 month period to learn how to do front-end development might make sense. But like any other decision, there are tradeoffs. This "all-in" boot-camp style takes a lot of dedication. I don't think there's much risk of it becoming the primary way people learn to code, and even if it does, one can still learn on their own as easily as they could before.
It's true that a good majority of these programs focus around tech centers in the country, but there are some other options for people for whatever reason cannot move. The guys at Bloc.io are really great and offer an online version.
