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Makers Academy

Online, London, Bristol, Manchester, +1 more.
Cambridge

About Makers Academy

Location: Online, London, Bristol, Manchester, Cambridge

Makers Academy is a highly selective 16 week, full-time program which teaches web development. Based in London, England the course is delivered fully remotely and is open to anyone in the world who meets the coding requirements, and wants to future-proof... Read More

The course has been designed by a team of inspirational software engineers with strong backgrounds in educational psychology, enabling students to master any technology in today's marketplace. As big believers in self-directed learning, students finish the course as a confident and independent software engineer ready to hit the ground running.

There's a focus on life-long learning skills, while the course includes technical tests, working on open-source code or even working with the Makers engineering team on live, real-world, production code.

We have an incredibly popular emotional intelligence curriculum as well, with virtual yoga and meditation support, because world-class software developers are great communicators and collaborators as well as great coders.

Makers has the largest dedicated career coaching team in the industry providing 1:1 support to help you launch your tech career. We have relationships with over 250 of London’s top technology companies looking to hire (including but not limited to Deliveroo, British Gas, Starling Bank, Financial Times, Compare The Market.com, and Tesco). We also have the largest alumni network in the UK.

Courses

Web Development Bootcamp

Cost: £8,500
Duration: 16 weeks
Locations: Online, London, Bristol, Manchester, Cambridge
In-person Available Online
Course Description:

Firsthand Experience

Forget rote learning and slow progress. You'll be learning from world class developers and immediately implementing the concepts into your own projects. Be prepared to drink from the firehose.

Community-driven Classrooms

During your hands on training, we invite engineers from top tech companies to guide you. You'll be learning while simultaneously networking with key members in the technology community.

Pairing

Students spend about 50-70% of their time pair programming, meaning two people working together on the same code base. Pairing is a fantastic way to learn new concepts and studies have shown developer output to INCREASE when developers pair program.

Project-Based Work

While the first half of the course focuses on the fundamentals of Web Development and the Ruby Language, the second half focuses heavily on students creating real-life projects. You will leave the course with at least 3 complete pieces of work for your portfolio, as well as a bulging Github account and plenty of points on Stack Overflow.

Subjects:
CSS, HTML, jQuery, PostgreSQL, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, React.js, SQL, Node.js, JavaScript

Makers Academy Reviews

Average Ratings (All Programs)

Makers Academy logo

4.71/5 (497 reviews)

Anonymous
Senior Software Engineer | Graduated: 2015

2/19/2018

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Curriculum

Job Support

"Life-changing"

I did Makers Academy intending to learn something crazy hard but equally useful, to challenge myself and to improve my career prospects. Three years later I can say all those boxes were ticked.

I had the time of my life while at Makers and the experience... Read More

Giorgos Lamprakis
Software Engineer | Graduated: 2017

2/15/2018

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Curriculum

Job Support

"one of the best investments of my life"

My story is a bit different from the average candidate and that is the reason I am leaving this review.

What make's me different from the average student, is a computer science degree.

Now, the first question I am being asked by almost anyone that have... Read More

The quick answer is:
1. I hadn't coded for a while and I thought that would be the fastest track to get me a job as software engineer
2. I am well aware that in the era of free information and the internet, you can teach yourself almost anything and feel any knowledge gaps on your own; but I am also aware of the time it takes to do that in a degree that makes you employable
3. If you do a thorough job search and look for CS or other related Uni graduate schemes you will be surprised (or even entertained)
4. Hiring partners like ThoughtWorks and other companies like the one I am working for now

A more sophisticated answer and I will not elaborate on here is the approach of software craftsmanship Makers take, which is completely different from the one we had at university (freshman year of 2004).

Personally, I learned a lot and I can definitely say that it was one of the best investment's I have done in my life. The curriculum is exactly what you need to be able to understand and explore software engineering areas on your own and the people I met there were amazing.

I cannot say that Maker's Academy approach to education is the best for everyone. It won't be spoon-feeding and sometimes you might feel neglect especially if you come from traditional educational institutions. But again, for me, it was a perfect fit.

I enjoyably worked very hard (4 months without any breaks... Not even weekends) and that got me a job 5 day after my graduation. On Friday I graduated, on Monday I submitted job applications to the hiring partners of my interest, on Tuesday I had a phone call about my scheduled interviews, on Wednesday I had the interviews and on Friday I received an offer.

All in all, if you are willing to work hard (that doesn't mean that you won't enjoy the ride) and commit yourself to this experience, it will definitely pay back.

Tim
Software Developer | Graduated: 2017

2/15/2018

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Job Support

"Makers helped me change career and become a dev"

Makers enabled me to get that first foothold as a software developer. I did the course as a full career change. I had no previous coding experience.

The course gives you the knowledge and confidence to continue to learn how to develop software once the... Read More

It does not and cannot teach you everything. I am in Week 4 of my first developer role and am working on a micro-service written in a language not touched on the course, using application frameworks and testing frameworks I had never heard of before starting the job. There is also a significant amount of ‘Dev Ops’ in the role (which is great) but not touched on the course. Even though this role feels like the deep end, what I learnt at Makers has allowed me to float not sink. I’ll be adding value and coding independently on the codebase very soon I expect.

I gave it 5*s overall because I got out of it what I wanted. I changed career. I am a developer. As a bonus I met some great people who will, I’m certain, remain friends.

I removed a * from the curriculum, and gave it 4*s, because I thought the pre-course could be improved (I understand it already has been). I intend to provide feedback on that direct to Makers. I’ve put some tips for what I would have done differently at the bottom as I think they are probably more useful. Ie in hindsight I would still have gone to Makers (100%) but I would have done a few things differently.

I gave job support 5*s. I was fortunate not to be job-seeking for long but the support I got during the search/application phase was excellent. I would also add that one of the big strength of Makers is its network. I have come to my first role with three other Makers. One is 2 metres from me, the other 10 metres, the fourth a floor away. This really makes things easier. That you may not go to your first job alone, and if you do there is a strong chance there are former Makers already there who can help out should be a strong selling point for Makers as an organisation.

So what I would do differently were I to do it again:

I would trust my instincts especially relating to how I learn. Makers is knowledgeable and opinionated about how people learn best. As an individual I agreed with lots, but not all of it was right for me. I should have trusted those instincts earlier and ignored the bits which weren’t working for me.

I would have requested individual code reviews earlier. The coaches are most helpful one-on-one but I held off approaching them because I got the impression I should hold off for my own benefit. This meant I didn’t get answers to some key things I didn’t understand until week 10.

I would have spent more time and energy during project weeks doing my own coding practice.

I would have given more feedback. Makers is not perfect but they are good with feedback. I’m going to send them mine in writing now I have some perspective. I wish I’d given a bit more a bit often because when I did provide some it led to near-immediate change for the positive.

Finally a minor point - I would have done some CSS and HTML before starting so I didn’t meet it for the first time at a point in the course where there are more important things to learn.

Peter
Software Engineer | Graduated: 2017

2/15/2018

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Job Support

"Fantastic support, fantastic atmosphere, fantastic course"

I attended Makers from November 2017 to January 2018, and the course was fantastic. You're pushed to learn for yourself in ways that I've never really experienced before in any previous education. The coaches are friendly, and always ensure to put a big... Read More

Alex Jukes
Associate Engineer | Graduated: 2017

2/15/2018

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Job Support

"Best 3 months of my life"

My time at Makers Academy was genuinely one of the most enjoyable 3 months of my life. Every day, I got to learn a brand new skill set in an open, fun and engaging environment, surrounded by brilliant people who shared my passion for learning, in an institution... Read More

Anonymous
Software Developer | Graduated: 2017

2/15/2018

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Curriculum

Job Support

"Excellent, transformative experience"

Makers Academy was a transformative experience for me. Taking into account the course content, the quality of the coaches, the style of teaching, as well as the “experience” side of Makers - yoga, meditation, socials, comfortable physical setting, supply... Read More

George
Software Developer | Graduated: 2016

2/14/2018

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Job Support

"A life-changing experience!"

Makers was an all-round incredible experience. After a couple of months of trying to teach myself to code, I realised I really needed some structure and guidance to make the career change into Software Development, so signed up to the course in November... Read More

The course is tough - getting into Software Development takes patience, but through pair-programming every day with different partners and the problem solving skill-set Makers teach you, it's an immensely rewarding feeling when you finally solve the problem you've been stuck on for a while as a pair. Be prepared to learn for yourself under the guidance of some amazing coaches - you won't be taught like you would be in a university degree or at school, but you'll be taught how to learn for yourself, an essential skill in Software Development that's used almost every day on the job.

I was lucky enough to contract for Makers for 9 months after the course, and they've helped me to find my second job after contracting. In my experience the companies they work with follow the best practices advocated by Makers, putting you a step ahead of many self-taught developers and giving you a really good start on the Software Development ladder. Although the course was expensive at the time I joined, I've definitely made all my money back with their help - I can't recommend Makers enough!

Anonymous
Tech/Ops | Graduated: 2016

2/7/2018

Course
Web Development Bootcamp

Overall

Curriculum

Job Support

"it's ok"

I'm currently a co-founder at a tech startup. I'm writing this review 1 and half years on from completing the course and now I feel is a good time to reflex.

What happens

- The way they want you to learn is doing (which is perfect for me). Every week you... Read More

- Once a week you will review with the whole class certain problems

Pros

- They really focus of bringing everyone together and making everyone have the best time of the course by doing loads of social things (which I really enjoyed and most of the group also did)

- You get to work with a lot of people from different backgrounds

- All the teachers and founders really have the best in mind for the students and try there hardest

- They really force you to always test everything which is a great

Cons

- I believe a lot of reviews are clouded by peoples enjoyment of the course rather than what they actually got out of it.

- The weekly tasks disappointingly are pretty much a copy of this book Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Web Development Rails (great book by the way and teaches you everything but for the money you pay you expect something better)

- Main instructors are not around for most of the day and your told to ask senior students or over groups if you have questions. If I'm stuck for 30 minutes this is perfect and I understand. If i'm stuck for half a day I would much prefer to be taught the correct way of solving the problem by a professional (this is why I paid for the course), otherwise I'm pretty much doing the Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Web Development Rails book with a partner (who also knows very little).

- The tasks that are set are never updated (when I say never I can only reference the last 3 cohorts that I met). Spelling mistakes and tiny amendments maybe but sections where the whole group became stuck because of unclear explantations or tasks are set are left.

Advice

Find a mentor and just do the book Ruby on Rails Tutorial instead unless............

your looking to do this course for social reasons like meeting new friends and understanding yourself (by taking there meditation classes, yoga etc which are great here) as well as coding.

Official Response from Makers Academy

Hi,
Congrats on founding your own startup!
We’re really sad to hear your experience at Makers was only OK. OK is not enough :(
Our coaching approach is always evolving and we're getting more and more right. In the year and a half since you trained with... Read More

Anonymous
Graduated: 2017

2/5/2018

Overall

Curriculum

Job Support

"Interesting curriculum, but absolutely not worth the investment."

The curriculum seems to be reasonably up-to-date and consists of weekly projects subdivided in small steps (with walkthrough in case you get stuck) you are supposed to pair program over. There are also additional workshops and informal lectures with a... Read More

Official Response from Makers Academy

Hi - we’re really sorry to read about the experience you’ve described above. Just to clarify, we don’t shy away from assessments of the students because we think “this would turn out to be a humiliating, stressful and thus unpleasant experience for a... Read More

jolanta
developer | Graduated: 2018

2/2/2018

Course
Web Development Bootcamp

Overall

Curriculum

Job Support

"A very thoughtful programme - the most efficient way to switch career to developer - 16 weeks of course and 1 week till I got the dream job (in my case)"

I experienced every week to be so well structured - and deepend the knowledge and practice of writing code. I was always surprised by the high quality of program we were going through, the materials, coaches and staff support. I've not had a day regretting... Read More

Official Response from Makers Academy

We're so glad to hear that jolanta! Congrats on the job and keep us posted on how you go - we're always keen to keep in touch with students and for now you can email adele at makersacademy.com as a point of contact for now.

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