With the sudden changes brought about by COVID-19, entire industries have been forced overnight to create and optimize new digital platforms and channels. This transition to an online-first world has posed both a business challenge and an opportunity, while simultaneously expanding and accelerating the global digital skills gap.
One of the results has been a surge in demand for online coding bootcamps. New York-headquartered BrainStation, for example, has seen demand for its popular online bootcamp increase by 350% in the last two months, with professionals across North America and Europe looking for job-ready software development skills.
“Demand for our online courses has skyrocketed as hundreds of thousands of professionals around the world are making the most of this time to learn new digital skills and become certified from home. We’ve launched over 30 new online courses to meet demand and will soon be adding more,” said Jason Field, BrainStation’s Founder and CEO.
Established in 2012, BrainStation has become a global leader in the digital skills training space, empowering nearly 100,000 professionals through its online offerings and campuses around the world. All of the company’s award-winning courses and programs are available in a virtual, instructor-led format, which the company calls Online Live.
“Online Live is powered by our own proprietary online student platform, which lets learners attend live classes from the comfort of their home, giving them the chance to learn from an industry expert over live video,” Field said. “With Online Live, learners can receive feedback and collaborate with fellow learners in real-time, helping them develop a truly global network of like-minded professionals.”
BrainStation’s history of student success has driven the platform’s increasing popularity. Over the years, the company’s hands-on, project-based learning model has been extremely successful in preparing individuals for new career paths, with over 90% of graduates finding work within 180 days of graduation.
Simultaneous growth in data science
In addition to software development skills, BrainStation is seeing a surge in demand for its full-time Online Data Science Bootcamp, which prepares students for careers in data, one of the fastest-growing digital fields. 2.8 million new data jobs have been forecasted for the next two years, with more and more brands relying on data-driven business decisions.
“We’ve seen applications nearly double for the bootcamp, which equips students with job-ready skills, including data visualization, python programming, big data fundamentals, and machine learning. It truly allows them to develop the technical capability and confidence they need to jump right into a new career in data,” Field said, adding that the company has also launched a range of part-time, online data science courses, including data analytics courses, Python programming training, and machine learning courses, among others.
Demand for digital marketing skills growing
Software development and data are not the only growing disciplines, with increased demand for digital marketing courses, including social media marketing and search engine marketing courses. In response, BrainStation launched a full-time, 12-week Online Digital Marketing Bootcamp, which is meant to provide job-ready digital marketing skills and techniques, including analytics and reporting, content marketing strategy, email marketing, social media, search engine optimization, and search engine marketing.
“The need for digital marketing courses has surged as brands try to navigate the new reality for marketing and social media,” Field said, explaining that user experience design is now firmly in the spotlight.
“We’re seeing now how important great user experiences are in an online-only world, and as things keep changing, the capability to understand what your audience wants and needs is increasingly essential.”
User experience design courses in demand
BrainStation’s expanded Online UX Design Bootcamp gives individuals the chance to master UX design fundamentals, user research and strategy, user interface design, responsive design, and professional design tools, such as Sketch and InVision. The company has also added more online part-time design instruction, including UX design courses, user interface design courses, and design thinking training.
“We were well prepared to meet the increased demand for online courses and we’ll continue to deliver the very best digital skills training,” Field said, adding that this unique period of time has only underscored what the company has known for a long time.
“Digital skills are the skills of the future, and open up new career opportunities and growth.”
