Regional Coding Bootcamps set their Sights on National Footprint

February 25, 2015

Vancouver’s Lighthouse Labs announced today that it will become Canada’s “first national computer coding bootcamp school to expand in multiple locations across the country.”

According to their press release Lighthouse Labs is set to open its doors in Toronto this March and in Calgary in April.

Lighthouse Labs was recently the host The HTML500, a free one-day coding event that visited Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and London, ON.

“Regardless of the industry you work in or your age, Canadians everywhere are interested in learning how to code,” said Lighthouse Labs Co-founder & CEO Jeremy Shaki. “This cross-country expansion will ensure Canadians have the opportunity to receive the best developer experience and education available to them.”

Coincidentally Toronto-headquartered coding school BrainStation posted 81 job opportunties today that clearly demonstrate their expansion plans beyond Toronto into Ottawa, Vancouver, and Waterloo.

Boasting a 100 per cent job placement rate in both their web development and iOS bootcamp programs, Lighthouse Labs start with a part-time program in Toronto in March 2015 and open their full-time web development bootcamp in May 2015, with their iOS bootcamp slated to start in July 2015. Calgary’s curriculum will begin with only a part-time offering.

A fundamentally unique aspect of Lighthouse Labs’ program is the 100 per cent job placement success of students. According to Shaki, the program is only the beginning, the additional growth and learning comes from paid co-op placements, essentially making the total program length 4-5 months.

“A bootcamp helps kick start your career, but when you take that first job we expect that you won’t just settle into a 9-5 job and stop the pursuit of developing your skills,” says Khurram Virani, Co-Founder and Senior Director of Education at Lighthouse Labs.

“By placing students into 2-3 month long paid co-ops, the emphasis is established that they are still expected to learn and that the company is expected to provide mentorship. It’s why we have seen such success with companies hiring our students full-time. It’s that focus on continued learning that has really helped the program succeed.”

As part of today’s announcement Lighthouse Labs announced that it will operate out of startup accelerator Highline’s Toronto office.