The beginning of 2018 marks an important milestone for Grand Circus – we’re turning 5!
To mark the occasion I wanted to share some of our proudest moments, and let you know about some exciting changes for the coming year.
When Grand Circus was founded, the simple idea was to teach the masses job skills for the modern digital economy. While we have always been true to that vision, I never imagined the profound impact we would have on people’s lives.
These student stories inspire us every day, and they also serve to reinforce our belief that anyone can learn the skills of a developer.
A few coding student stories –
There’s Matt…He was delivering sandwiches for a local cafe when he heard about Grand Circus’ bootcamps. Matt took a Front-End bootcamp, now he’s a software developer at Accenture.
Or Deeann…She was a stay-at-home mom for more than 10 years who was finding it difficult to break back into the workforce. She took a Java bootcamp and now works at Pillar Technology, a leading software development firm.
Or Terrell…He’s a current high school senior who learned HTML/CSS in a Grand Circus youth program. Terrell picked a class project which took his mom’s clothing business online and has since started his own web development business!
Over the last five years, we’ve seen hundreds of similar stories and the impact of our training is evident across Michigan:
- 2500+ people introduced to coding in our free seminars
- ~1000 adults trained in our immersive coding bootcamps
- 90% of our paid bootcampers are now working in various tech careers*
- 170+ companies who have hired our graduates to fuel their growth
- 350 high school students trained in basic front-end development and exposed to the opportunity of a tech career
- 3,000 people learning social media marketing over the next 2 years (in a program sponsored by Facebook)
* For more info on our job placement rates, check out our 2016 Outcomes Report
For all of this success, we regularly survey alumni and employers on how to improve our outcomes. This feedback is being implemented in some exciting changes for 2018.
Beginning in April, our regular bootcamp curriculum will run 12 weeks (adding an additional 2 weeks to the program). This updated format will expose our students to a larger set of employer-demanded skills while continuing to make a tech career accessible to as wide an audience as possible.
This is a time to celebrate, and we’re very thankful for everyone who has been a part of our journey. In addition to the thousands of students we’ve trained and launched into exciting tech careers, we are also indebted to the support of countless individuals and organizations across Detroit and Grand Rapids who help us in our quest to make tech accessible to Michganders.
Thank you and have a great 2018!