Alternative and independent: The universe of technology-related “bootcamps”
Bibliographic record
Abstract
In recent years, nontraditional workforce training programs have proliferated inside and outside of traditional post-secondary institutions. A subset of these programs, bootcamps, advertise high job placement rates and have been hailed by policymakers as key to training skilled workers. However, few formal data exist on the number, types, prices, location, or other descriptive details of program offerings. We fill this void by studying the universe of bootcamp programs offered as of June 30, 2017. In this report, we discuss the attributes of the 1,010 technology-related programs offered in the United States, Canada, and online. We find more diversity among bootcamp providers and programs than would be expected from public discourse. This primarily relates to the mode of delivery (online vs. in person), intensity (part time/full time), cost, and program types. Based on the data we collected, we present a classification structure for bootcamps focused on five distinct program types.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.010 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.004 | 0.007 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.003 | 0.005 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.004 | 0.004 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.004 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.015 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".