RED Academy - CLOSED

Curriculum is basic at best. We were put into groups for a project and both my partners bailed at the halfway mark for the partial refund, saying it was less than they’d expected. In general, recruiting does a very good job of bringing in the very young... Read More and inexperienced. Instructors were not all bad, but it’s a “canned” presentation at best. There’s better online material, for free.

I took the part-time Digital Marketing Foundation course from January - April 2019.

Right off the bat, I was very impressed with how organized the course was in terms of the curriculum schedule and access to the course content. RED has a very innovative... Read More model of a primary teacher assisted by a rotating cast of TAs who all work in the field of digital marketing. It was a very effective model, and the TAs are well-utilized in the classroom delivery and the supervision of the group project. I was very happy with my group project team and the client we were assigned. The expectations for the project were very clearly laid out and tied directly to the course curriculum. 

Overall, it was always a pleasure to attend class, even after a long work day. This is because I was very impressed with the primary teacher and the TAs supporting him, and I felt like they always demonstrated a strong mastery of the topics being taught. Expect to be challenged by some of the subjects, especially SEO and Google Ads. However, working hard in the course and studying in your own time will pay dividends, as these topics are extraordinarily useful, relevant, and employable. I am very much looking forward to using the new skills I gained in the creation of my own business entity in the near future.

I would highly recommend this course to someone who loves marketing but is currently a bit mystified by the major entities that power and measure digital marketing (Google Analytics, SEO, Google Ads, Facebook Ads). This course gives you what you need to shine in a marketing job, start freelancing with confidence, or get started on an entrepreneurial path. 





I didn't really know what to expect when going to take the Digital Marketing Professional course at RED. How are they going to teach me anything in 3 months? Now that it's done, I'd say I learned more in 3 months than 4 years at University.

The value... Read More for me went beyond the learning. It reminded me of being back in grade-school because you are surrounded with the same group of colleagues full time.. except now you're adults. You're more reasonable, less shy, less awkward, etc. I found it super easy to make friends and I know that a lot of the people that I met will be friends indefinitely, including the staff and teachers.

My teachers, Chris and Rowan, were both fantastic. They both brought us a very different style of teaching, different style of humor, different marketing work experience even. Our class dug into their backgrounds and learned lots about different places to work, different types of jobs in industry, etc. They took us on field trips to go visit different digital agencies around Vancouver, like Moz and Major Tom, which was also a treat. We also had guest teachers like Lisa and Haydee that were both fantastic and brought their own advice and experiences to the table.

I can't say it was an easy course. Some people struggled because there was a lot of material packed into three months. Personally, I enjoyed that aspect. It's you and your classmates versus a common enemy, the material. We became closer friends through studying together, getting help from each other, and working on the community projects together.

The community projects for me were the biggest value in the course. You are put on teams and tasked with developing and presenting digital marketing strategies for three local companies. This was practical experience that I could toss on my resume. A resume that I soon learned I wouldn't need as we had been offered jobs from all three companies. I'm not sure that's the case every term but I can speak to my experiences.

Other positives: The staff are just as much colleagues as they are authorities, access to all the events hosted at RED, the parties, and the career support.

The negatives: It's not always easy to park in the area for free (hot tip: I never got a ticket at the 2 hour spots by Birch and 10th). It's hard to avoid going to McDonald's due to the proximity - straight to the thighs.

I have a lot of feelings about RED, most good, some bad. I joined the developer stream of RED after feeling like my life lacked a lot of direction -- professionally I was very lost and unhappy with my day job. A developer friend mentioned how many of... Read More their coworkers were RED alumni, and that I should maybe take a look at the course. I talked to Matt on the phone, then met him in person, and he was very informative and sweet. Great guy. I signed up for the full-stack dev course right away, hoping that it would send me down a fun and exciting new career path.

In many ways, it did. I learned a lot and am now employed as a developer, and I love my job. I love coding. The first half of the full-stack course, the Web Development one, was the highlight of my time at RED. Jim, one of the instructors, was a beacon of knowledge and support in the classroom. By far one of the kindest, most wonderful people I have ever met. Rose, the other instructor, was also great and very good at teaching, though she left for another position halfway through my cohort. I won't lie -- that threw off our classroom's rhythm a little and we scrambled to adapt to her absence. I wish she had waited until the end of my cohort to leave, but alas I'm sure she had her reasons. Overall, Web Development was a breeze, I learned exactly what I was expecting to learn, and it met my expectations perfectly.

I moved on to App Development in October, and while I do think I learned most of my skills in App Dev, I found that there were a lot of issues with how the course was structured and with the approachability of the instructors. I think that the instructors tried to cram too much material in 3 months, resulting in the class feeling overwhelmed and lost. I understand we had a curriculum to follow, but perhaps focusing on fewer things would improve student experience and help us retain more information. In my opinion, not enough backend development was covered, and complicated concepts like promises and await/async functions were explained in half an hour or less and then never touched on again. Also, I had issues with our first major project in class. Please don't spring a beast like that on students first thing! I get the reasoning behind it, but it was extremely demotivating and made the entire class question their abilities right away, which stuck with us through the entire rest of the course.

The instructors are nice people, and probably guys I would hang out with outside of class if we met under other circumstances. But there were many problems with their teaching style. My favourite of the two was Mackenzie, who clearly knew what he was talking about. His excitement over the material really shone through, and his lectures were usually pretty great. He did feel hands-off at times, probably because he was more involved with curriculum development and seemed to be stepping away from teaching, and a little detached from our class. He didn't have much patience either, but in my opinion his knowledge made up for that. Sid, the other instructor, while a great guy outside of class, was young and inexperienced and it really showed in his teaching. I felt that he struggled with treating us as students because he tended to treat us as friends. And I did feel as if he berated me and questioned my intelligence a couple times, either by making a snarky remark to a question I asked in class, or by sighing audibly and rolling his eyes when I came to him for help (other students commented on this as well -- it was something that happened often).

There wasn't as much support in App Development as there was in Web Development, and there was definitely an expectation for us to know everything despite the little time allocated to teaching certain concepts. I wish the instructors would have actually hung out in the classroom during lab time instead of scurrying off to their office. It felt extremely awkward to knock on their door and interrupt their office time with questions. Also -- when a student makes a complaint about one instructor to the other, the instructor the student complained to isn't supposed to rat them off to the one they complained about. Very unprofessional. At times I felt as if I couldn't come to anyone with concerns or complaints because it would get around somehow and damage my own reputation with the instructors. It's great all the instructors are friends, but certain things are very obviously not meant to be shared.

Overall, would I recommend RED? Yes. There are things to be improved in the development program for sure, but I still learned so much and managed to make a career out of this. The culture is great, Friday socials are fun, and most of the staff are awesome. Out of the bootcamps in Vancouver, I do believe RED is one of the best, though I do hope they take this review to heart so that they can become even better.

I came onto this course wishing to change careers form and IT infrastructure analyst to something which allowed me to be more creative but still be involved the the tech arena. I found all the lecturers, who came from professional backgrounds themselves,... Read More to be very knowledgable and helpful when it came to seeking further information or delving deeper into specific topics. This definitely added value to the courses already informative syllabus. The course can seem intense but it does help you prepare for the pace at which some projects can work. But I've found reaching out to the lecturers post course for advice and guidance to be of great help especially when wanting to discuss things I learned during the course. The staff at Red academy area an incredibly supportive, pleasurable bunch of individuals, always keen to help or pass on their own experience and knowledge form within the industry. Also, the staying in touch post course in relation to UX meet-ups etc has also been helpful as it has meant I have always been able to attend quite a few of them and keep abreast of what's occurring within the world of UX.

in terms of cons, the career coaching and PPD sessions which were great could be provided in more frequency post course (career coach meetings) or to allow more access to a career coach in order to have a more tailored experience. I say this because I have found the career coach to be of great help, happy to go over any questions and provide assistance in any way possible. it just would be great if the frequency at which you can meet and go over things was a little more.

I would highly recommend Red Academy to anyone that is thinking of taking oar in the UX Design Professional Course. If you're willing to learn and have an open mind, these guys will do their best to make sure you get the most out of the experience.

Overall I’m very happy with my RED experience. I changed my career completely to go into UX Design and RED made this a great transition for me and equipped me well for my first UX role.

Pros:
Great onboarding experience where myself and my classmates were... Read More taught the RED method which really helped throughout the course.
The tutors are industry experts and can give great insight into what to expect in the world of work. They are very accommodating and were willing to put extra hours in for the students.
There was a good balance of real client projects and theory work.
Good career support and preparation for applying for jobs - I think this is hard to get exactly right for everyone, but I thought RED’s approach on helping with CV writing and guidance with creating portfolios was good.
I was presenting work frequently, which really helped me with public speaking.
I met some great friends along with all of the above! And it’s great to be based in WeWork - I think it provides the right environment for RED Academy students.

Cons:
I think the career coaching and PPD sessions were good, but could be steered more towards individuals and given information such as realistic salary expectations, for example. I felt these sessions were sometimes quite generalist.
I felt the course lacked in the full UX Designer spectrum outside of designing: how to hand off to UI/ developers and standard practices around this.

I would definitely recommend RED Academy!

I came to RED Academy without any knowledge of code, and I can now create complex websites. My experience for this course was great, and I'm now doing the App Dev program, to be Full Stack Developer. The course is hard, you need to be very implicate in... Read More it, but the instructors are good and provide you the support you need and you have a great work-environment.

I found RED Academy through SwitchUp, communication from the point I made my application was superb, I met Michelle at WeWork within a few days and everything was sorted quickly. Considering I had applied the week before the bootcamp started, the speed... Read More of the process was impressive.

The first couple of days were ice breaking exercises which got me accustomed to everybody, everybody was open coming from all backgrounds & all walks of life. After that we went straight into the Web Development course, where the instructors were very good, encouraged you to work through the problem yourself rather than giving you the answer directly and were willing to stay late to support us when we needed it. The instructors also pushed back deadlines if we needed to and went over things again if we didn't fully understand the content.

I felt comfortable with the knowledge I learnt, the tips I received and also all the resources, one thing I didn't realise was these are all still available to us after graduating which is very helpful to go over previous content. I have felt comfortable enough to move onto the Full-Stack Developer Course where I will be doing App Development and I am excited to begin!

The location was great (can't complain at free beer!) Everybody was approachable in the building outside of RED, I have made useful connections with people throughout the building just discussing what I am doing with RED, showing my code etc.

There are a few minor negatives, PPD could be better and more emphasis was needed in getting everybody up to the same stage when it comes to having a LinkedIn, job interviews and networking. There were a couple of issues but these were fixed very quickly with very good communication and diplomacy.

One thing I have noticed in the reviews is that people have complained about the job support, RED doesn't give a percentage rate of people who get a job after the course. RED do not guarantee you a job, you will have to do this on your own however RED's career support is with you every step of the way as you can get specialised help which is easily accessible as you are allowed in the building when you graduate.

Overall, I think that RED is a great environment to learn, make friends & connections.

I was very satisfied with the amount of knowledge, tips and supports that I get from the team in RED Academy. This course is excellent for newbies in WebDev and good as well for more experienced people. If you are ready to dig dipper, pushing through... Read More any problems to find solutions, self-motivated you will succeed! They really do give you every tools that you need to succeed. You have to want it! You have to work for your own career. Noone will give you that for free. But... The RED Academy is inside WeWork building - that's the perfect place to get connections, to meet people from industry, to research what and where. That works for me because even before the end of cohort I already had a couple of a job offers.
And you are always welcome to come back - to talk, share, gave or get support and advice. RED is like home and the team is like a family :)

Firstly I would like to start by saying the overall experience with RED Academy, London was good.

I was an enthusiastic career upskiller with a long career in corporate pivoting my skills into UX Design.

I want to be specific with my feedback and breakdown... Read More by specific points to help you decide and rate overall customer experience. Good and bad.

The location:
Great to do the course at We Work with such a great concept of co-habiting work space. Making it a pleasant and friendly community-driven environment.

The school:
RED Academy London has access to a few rooms. Most of the time the organization of the space was fine but at times required better organization. At time this was lacking and could have been improved through better curriculum planning, coordination and communication with students.

Onboarding experience:
RED Academy London initially on enquiry was very responsive with great communication to the point of signing up to the course. The communication after signing up leading up to starting the course with welcome information was lacking. On the day of joining there was a full on orientation day which was useful however basic admin lacked in areas. The signup process was very manual and could be improved by making the sign up process more digitally enabled (especially if you are a digital user experience school!!)

Course curriculum:
Breadth of content packed with lots of practical advice and real client projects, great to add to your CV. Gaining real industry insights and practical professional experience really helps you to hit the ground running.
Overall curriculum was great and planned well to equip you with the skills you need quickly.
Course tutors were changed after a few weeks on my course which did impact the morale and responsiveness of the class. This was not a good move to make this change during a course given the intensity.

Price point:
Given lack of competition and that the course covers real-life projects it’s great. This is definitely a ++.
Many competitors out there offer part-time practical courses too with also great content at a fraction of the cost.
Don’t assume doing a full time intensive course will get you a job quicker because it won’t. Do your research.
Make sure your expectations are aligned before signing up in this very competitive saturated design job market.

Tutors:
Great mix of tutors from all background and walks of life. Super talented and experienced.
The UX Design course was great and I learnt a lot but tutor planning and prep skills at times lacked.

Career advice (during course):
During course there was career prep sessions which were informative with some great practical exercises to get you prepared. These sessions were informative but detracted from the pressure and intensity of the curriculum and client projects. Sessions could have been staggered and planned more effectively.

Career support and coaching (post course):
The career open evening was not effective given the audience and lack of partnerships RED London had obtained. Having mainly recruitment agencies there and not leading industry companies does not open up doors for students. Development in this area need improvement by RED. This was also a sales tactic when I signed up and was not present when I graduated.

There is career sessions offered in terms of CV writing and job applications etc. but these were not customized sessions by design industry professionals. But rather generic coaching sessions. I did not find the sessions beneficial with insightful consultative expertise.

Overall experience:
Fantastic course packed with lots of useful industry leading content and real client projects ++.

Support and motivation after course and network of career partnerships was very disappointing.
If RED want to be industry leading at a price point which is not competitive they need to up their game to cover all the above points.
Especially expectations of students wanting to find employment in this VERY compatible over saturated job market by being sold a full time course. This does not get you that job!

Good luck students. Do your homework.

:The UX course was packed