Anyone who has ever taken a literature class in school will recognize this iconic passage from poet Robert Frost: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and it has made all the difference.”
In the century since Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken,” was published, this passage has entered the American lexicon as a call for people to find their own path forward in life, even if it’s not the most common path.
There is nothing more American than an individual charting their own path to success and pursuing their own dreams. In 2018, there are more opportunities for success than ever before thanks to our thriving economy. Unemployment is down and business is booming, and pro-growth policies coming out of Washington will only keep this trend going.
In spite of the current economic debates taking place both in Washington as well as in political elections across the country, one issue is clear: many people are currently locked out of certain high-paying jobs because they do not have the time or money to learn the necessary skills required to obtain those jobs.
This is, in large part, due to the fact that typical tuition rates for four-year degrees at colleges and universities are rising astronomically, and for many people, the time-consuming and expensive nature of four-year degrees make them almost impractical. It’s a catch-22: people need to learn new skills to get good jobs, but they need good jobs in order to afford classes.
In the technology sector, which is one of the nation’s fastest-growing and economically impactful industries, it can be especially challenging. Careers, such as employment in the software development industry, require advanced skills in coding – skills that many people are unable to learn due to the skyrocketing tuition costs at many of our nation’s institutions for higher learning.
But what if there was an alternate route from the typical college track, that could make all the difference for these driven individuals?
There is: it is called a coding boot camp.
With coding boot camps, students learn to code in just a few months and are swiftly equipped to make an immediate impact in the labor-starved tech industry.
That might sound too good to be true, but the results speak for themselves. One good example is LearningFuze in Irvine, California, an institution that not only teaches their students to code but also helps them find lucrative careers after graduation.
But coding boot camps are not exclusive to large coastal areas. DevCodeCamp is a coding boot camp based out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that proves the technology sector is booming across the United States.
According to the Milwaukee Business Journal, the burgeoning Milwaukee tech industry had a $27 billion impact on the area, and institutions like devCodeCamp are moving cities like Milwaukee into being leaders in the tech space.
With each graduating class, coding boot camps are supplying our nation with driven, skilled coders ready to work and help grow the economy.
This comes at the right time. As the economy continues to evolve and digitize, the need for more coders in America is becoming clearer.
According to USA Today, there will be 1.4 million open software development jobs in 2020. That’s 1.4 million opportunities for Americans to take charge of their future and contribute to an important sector of the economy. They just need the necessary skills-training in order to take advantage of those opportunities.
Coding boot camps are rising to the challenge of training this new and much-needed workforce.
According to Course Report, there are now over 100 coding boot camps all across the nation that will graduate over 20,000 students this year, a massive increase over last year. And thanks to recent deregulation efforts by the Trump Administration, this key industry can continue to grow and help connect people with the jobs of the future.
The rapidly-expanding technology sector is changing our economy in amazing ways and offers more people than ever before a new path to success. Coding boot camps provide people the knowledge they need in a convenient and cost-effective manner.
For too long, post-secondary education was restricted to one path, college, which stopped many Americans from pursuing their dreams. Now, thanks to coding boot camps, there’s a new path, one that could make all the difference for many Americans.
Matt Borges is the former Chairman of the Republican Party of Ohio. He is a Director at Roetzel Consulting Solutions.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.