What are the best programming bootcamps/courses available in Europe?

• Expect to skip the fuzzy theoretical stuff; this isn't Computer Science 101. Instead, we focus on the pragmatic skills and effective tactics used by the best web developers in the industry.
• Expect deadlines. Follow our program, and commit the time required, and in 12 weeks you will become a competent junior web developer.
• Expect human contact. The apprenticeship model means working closely with a professional web developer and not hiding behind a screen.
• Expect to build something. Over your 12-week course, you will code your concept or idea into a completed project. And we'll guide you along the way.

We are starting JavaScript Full-Stack Bootcamp in Barcelona Code School in September.

The Full-Stack JavaScript Bootcamp takes place over eight weeks in one of the world’s most spectacular cities and prepares you for an interesting, high-paying job as a web developer. The bootcamp teaches an up-to-date JavaScript-focused curriculum to maximize the demand for your skills when you graduate. Extracurricular activities like stand-up paddleboarding, indoor rock climbing, yoga and beach parties will help you take full advantage of the amazing setting of Barcelona.

Why Barcelona Code School?

There’s a revolution happening in web development. The progression from cumbersome MVC frameworks like Ruby on Rails and AngularJS, to the modular Node.js runtime and functional ReactJS library, is making programming for the web more fun and productive than ever.

Unfortunately, many coding bootcamps have failed to update their curriculum to prepare students for the future of web development. Barcelona Code School’s Full-Stack JavaScript Bootcamp teaches the skills with the highest and fastest-growing demand in the entry-level job market.

Why JavaScript?

Ubiquitous

Javascript is the world’s most popular programming language, and it’s easy to see why. It is used by apps and web browsers in billions of laptops and mobile devices, and is becoming the language of choice for server-side programming at leading online companies like Netflix.

Asynchronous

JavaScript is taking over server-side development because of its ability to process multiple requests simultaneously. This enables huge performance gains without upgrading hardware.

Isomorphic

Unlike languages such as Ruby and Python that only run on web servers, JavaScript is used both on servers and in web browsers and mobile apps. This lets developers focus on business logic and user experience, rather than the idiosyncrasies of multiple programming languages.

Community

Barcelona Code School is dedicated to helping students succeed before, during and after the Full-Stack JavaScript Bootcamp. Before the bootcamp, workshops are available to help students meet the prerequisites for the program. Tuition assistance in the form of financing is also available.

In addition to Lead Instructor Chris Tsongas the Full-Stack JavaScript Bootcamp team includes Teaching Assistants who ensure students get the individual attention they need to overcome obstacles and keep up with coursework. Evening and weekend activities give students the physical and mental breaks needed for optimal performance in the classroom.

During the bootcamp you will be coached by local recruiters and industry professionals on interviewing skills and how to find a job after graduation. There are an incredible number of tech startups and established companies in need of full-stack developers in Barcelona, plus you will gain access to an international network of potential employers. Upon graduation, Barcelona Code School offers an optional residency program to help students build on what they learned in the bootcamp while networking and interviewing for jobs.

If you are an absolute beginner and the idea of pre-work hours doesn’t seem appealing to you, than you could do worse than to check out Ubiqum Code Academy.

The academy has centres in Barcelona and Berlin.

Ubiqum offers Java Full Stack Web Development, Data Analytics & Big Data as well as Native Android Development.

• Onsite
• 800 hours (5 months)
• Month 5, work with careers team for placement & personal projects
• 100% learning by doing, simulating real world projects
• 9am - 5pm daily
• Pay 50% initially and 50% when you get hired
• Student Visa status covered since we have affiliation with Universities in Barcelona.

So far 98% of students have landed a position in their chosen field within 45 days of completing the program.

The content is developed by leading Computer Scientists from the University of Carnegie Mellon in the USA and the dedicated product development team are continually improving the curriculum.

For a direct contact, simply email: mark@ubiqum.com

I have just graduated from Le Wagon, an intensive 9 weeks coding bootcamp. It was my first time programming and I absolutely loved it. These are my key take-aways from it.

Three Broken clichés:

• Coding is lonely:

Before joining Le Wagon, I had the image of coders as lonely, weird people who spent their days in front of screens, by themselves in a dark garage, eating cereal. In fact, what I discovered at Le Wagon is that coding actually requires a lot of collaboration. I think all the students from my batch will remember the day we started a group project on GitHub. In 90% of the cases, you will code with others, and being able to communicate efficiently is one of the key skills of a good programmer.

• Coding is boring:

Once again, let’s return to the coder-caveman cliché. From an external point of view, he seems to constantly do the same thing, with the same bored expression. That’s a lie. When I was coding, I experienced rollercoaster moods that led to this kind of train of thought: 1. Getting stuck on something: “I hate coding, Ruby is wrong, my code is obviously perfect, anyway I despise it so it doesn’t matter” 2. Finding the solution: “Coding is amazing, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done, I’m the best, Ruby is the best, everyone is the best.” Until I got stuck again. Coding is challenging, tiring, frustrating but definitely not boring.

• Coding is for boys:

The coder-caveman cliché from the movies is useful once again. Sadly, there are not a lot of coder-cavewomen on screens, which is a shame. There is a need for more developers in every industry, and a simple way to fix this is to encourage the other half of humankind to learn coding. We were ten women in our batch and we did just as well as the other 30 men. When it comes to coding, everyone is equal which is why more women should learn to code — and more tech companies should hire them.

A travel Chatbot:

During the last two weeks, we worked in teams to bring an idea to life. Celia, Hen, Ben and I created Voyagr, a Chatbot and associated web app which asks a series of questions to provide a user with personalized travel inspiration. Building a product in two weeks was very challenging but very interesting. The hardest part was prioritizing and making sure that we were focusing on the right tasks every day. In the end, we obtained good results and we have had almost 100 unique users since we launched it two weeks ago (check it out: voyagr - Find your destination).

Three amazing teammates and many more friends:

There is nothing better than struggling on the same challenges during nine weeks to form friendships. I have met amazing people during these two months, from the students to the teachers. Le Wagon manages to bring together a very large variety of people in the same place, from those who have 20 years of work experience to freshly graduated high school students. This combination is a large part of what makes the bootcamp such an enriching experience. I personally became friends with an Olympic swimmer from Hong Kong, an experienced consultant, a Canadian former school teacher, a VC fund owner… and many more.

Coding and Product management skills:

You learn a lot in nine weeks and there is no time to rest. I felt more braindead during the bootcamp than I had ever felt during the course of my Bachelor or Master degrees. It’s difficult but completely worth it!

Hi all! I am a ‘Le Wagon’ alumni from Batch 11 (summer 2015). Le Wagon has been tremendously helpful in my personal and professional development and I wanted to share my experience with you.

I came from an aerospace engineering and corporate finance background. I had worked 1 year in several early stage startups and 2 years in strategy consulting. I was looking for a change but was not very clear on which direction to take.

I would strongly recommend Le Wagon to those who are looking: to aspiring developers, to aspiring Product Managers, to aspiring CEOS, to all those who would like to land on positions that are closer to a (tech) product.

Learning a skill in the best conditions
Teachers and teaching assistants at Le Wagon are 100% committed to your success and adapt their methodology to the students’ level, which is especially relevant at the start (when all students do not have the same programming background) and at the end of the bootcamp when students are carrying out their own project and need expertise on very specific topics (e.g., some students would use React for their project).

Of course, if your goal is to become a ‘fullstack’ developer, there is a long way to go after Le Wagon, but those who are motivated and stick to it become very successfull.

Understanding a whole ecosystem
When I joined le Wagon, I knew what agile development meant, but I did not know who was doing what. If you are interested in tech but the roles within a tech team are not clear to you, I would highly recommend that course. After 2.5 months, you are able to have an educated discussion with a UX designer, an UI designer, a front-end, a back-end developer, and a Product Manager.

Learning to code - if need be :)
Le Wagon program embeds courses on the lean methodology during which students build a product from scratch, without a single line of code - only by connecting existing services. A must for future bootstrappers !

Above all - learning to learn
Learning to learn is the one skill that should be in everyone’s survival kit these days! Our generation has to learn one, if not several skills per year and we have to be equipped with the right mindset to absorb that knowledge.

Learning to learn is by far the most valuable skill that I have learnt at Le Wagon. Why and how? Because coding is harsh - Your program does not work - But it did yesterday at 11pm! - Now it is all bugged - You have to fix it - You have no clue what the problem is!

The only thing you DO KNOW is that you won’t give up until it is fixed and that you have plenty of resources and people to help you out.

I’m one of Codeworks co-founders. We’re located in Barcelona (Spain), and teach JavaScript for the full stack. Our program is more intensive and selective than most other bootcamps in Europe and the US. Obviously the outcome is proportionally more rewarding too.

You can find some metrics here: https://codeworks.me/faq

Our course is comparable with Hack Reactor for JavaScript and App Academy for Ruby.

To be honest, it’s quite challenging to get admitted into these programs. Our acceptance rate for example is currently around 2.5%, but if you’re motivated and looking for excellence you should try!

I personally think it’s amazing that there are lighter programs out there, since they might be a better fit if you’re exploring the coding space and are not considering a career in tech yet.

We teach 100% in English, have a strong pre-coure, run classes 11 hrs per day, 6 days per week, for 3 months, with top-tier instructors and a curriculum that will challenge your learning limits.

You can find more info about the program here: https://codeworks.me/program

Hope this helps :)

Student of batch #99 in Amsterdam

I worked for more than 5 years as a Graphic Designer in Milan until I moved in Dubai. After my experience of 16 months in UAE as Unreal Developer, I understood how important it was for my profession to move into a different and more interesting area. I fell in love with coding after discovering the power and creativity of Javascript, but at the same time the growing demand for skills related to web development was a further stimulus to apply for this new challenge.

So I decided to find the best and most complete bootcamp in Europe and one of the best in the world, and after a long search I selected Le Wagon thanks also to a complete program.

Why Amsterdam? Because it is the third most important city in the world for the IT and creative industries. It is also a dynamic and innovative city.

The coding bootcamp was the best learning experience of my life and one of the best experience on a human side. In Le Wagon I found what I was looking for. An environment full of motivation, an extremely rich and structured course, supported by a clear and rich platform of content. Everything is planned to give you the best tools to face this challenge. But the best part of the course are the teachers and the perfect management of the driver. The first week was a little bit frustrating, because everything was new to me, but due to the clear and well structured lectures and explanations I was able to learn everything. Also the continuous support of the brilliant teachers was very beneficial to my learning curve. The teachers, lectures, course material, platform - it is a perfect machine where every attention is focused on your learning curve and progression. On the human side it was an amazing experience: wonderful people from all over the world with different background and different motivation. Thanks to the working method, you have the chance to know each person every day, and share your experience and your skills.

After these intensive weeks I really feel comfortable with front-end and back-end, and I have finally a complete and attractive job profile. As a designer I discovered a new world of powerful tools thanks to which I can have fun and be creative, and maybe mix some other designer skills. Anyway after two months I finally found my place in the world: despite the numerous job offers I receive, I'm looking to open my own company. So if you are looking to change your life, if you are looking to improve and enrich your skills, or if you are just looking for an awesome experience, don't hesitate. Just do it.

I have been hanging around Le Wagon for over a year now, and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had, certainly one of the most valuable decisions I've made in the past.

Keep your mind open

In January 2015, I decided to apply to Le Wagon FullStack program in order to learn programming but also to keep my mind open. I finished school about 10 years ago and I never took time to train myself after that.

For me as an entrepreneur, being aware that there are so many things to learn was as crucial as gaining these actual skills. I worked on my own before joining the bootcamp, in order not to be completely lost, since I was not an engineer. Those 8 hours spent discovering Pascal language back when I was a kid would not happen to be that helpful…

And I worked alot during the bootcamp. 9 hours in front of your code every day, and some more at night, 9 weeks straight. Pretty intense!

How does the web works?

I attended LeWagon in order to understand how those web and mobile apps work. At first, Idid not envisage to build a Tesla or a revolutionary AI software. I stilldon't. My intention was to get how AirBnb and Twitter function behind thecurtain. The famous MVP approach! And when you start seeing the way these appswork, you feel empowered to build your own stuff.

Many new projects!

After I ended the bootcamp, I decided to stay in touch with the team that runs Le Wagon. I just loved the atmosphere. It's so stimulating to see 10 new business projects every other month! I am now a part-time Teacher Assistant for the next batches,helping them understand the crucial notions of Ruby, Rails, SQL, htlm andJavaScript.

Click

I definitely had the desire to start a new business after Le Wagon. It just reinforced that feeling. Something just clicked in my mind: « now, you can build projects onyour own! ». I had previously started and failed on projects where I heavily depended on some other people's skills to make them work. Now I could launch things without being dependent. So important!

Mission Biberon

The last two weeks of the bootcamp were dedicated to our own projects. With a fellow student, I coded the elearning platform for future parents called www.MissionBiberon.com, with a video viewer, text recaps and quizzes. Sincethen, we've been working on the content, and a dozen episodes are now live!

This is just the beginning of Mission Biberon, but the first feedbacks are awesome. And I know I probably wouldn't have started this without Le Wagon.

So if you have the guts to start a business and 2 month to spare, you shouldn't even be reading the end of this comment, apply!