I heard about Lambda School a couple of years ago. I was intrigued and excited.
Demand for programmers and other IT professionals is huge and growing. Most college programs fail to instil knowledge and work skills.
Coding bootcamps have been criticized for shallow and narrow instruction.
Both colleges and bootcamps have strong incentive to gain students (tuition, fees), but not downside if their students cannot earn as much as they spend, or (much worse) take on as debt.
Lambda School turns this problem on its head. Lambda School offers an innovative Income Sharing Agreement (ISA). Students can take a Lambda School course without paying up front. The student then pays a share of their income after completing a course.
Sounds like a recipe for potential pain. But, the ISA:
- applies only to income from work in a field related to what Lambda School agreed to teach (if a student starts a restaurant, probably out of scope)
- only kicks in once a student makes $50K or more
- caps out at $30K
- has a time limit.
This completely aligns the interests of the student with the School. Lambda School is very energetic in preparing students to get hired in roles that will support repayment, through a job using skills the student has expressed strong interest in.
I’ve only been taking the course for a few weeks (Data Science 10, “Go Laser Sharks!”), and am impressed.