HOW TO SET UP YOUR OWN PROGRAMMING SCHOOL?

No wonder that entering the market of programming schools seems to be an attractive business idea. The industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12,27% between 2019 and 2025. More and more markets are suffering from similar problems - high unemployment among young people, the mismatch between the profile of candidates and the requirements of the labor market, shortage of software developers. Bootcams help to fight this by enabling their graduates to start their careers in the IT industry, regardless of their previous experience and skills.

Entering the market of coding bootcamps with your own school is quite a challenge - competition is growing in strength, and creating your own curriculum costs money. However, there are shortcuts. Instead of building a business from scratch, you can use the existing solutions and tools that Coders Lab IT School offers as part of its franchise.

SO, WHAT DO YOU NEED?

The success of a language school depends primarily on the quality of training, which is, in turn, determined by the learning materials and lecturers. Creating an effective curriculum and valuable materials is expensive and takes time. Coders Lab franchisees receive them as part of the franchise package and, what is important, they can be sure that the franchisor will take care of keeping them up-to-date. Programming languages are evolving all the time, which requires constant monitoring of changes and regular updating of training materials. Thanks to this, Coders Lab's clients also have a guarantee that the knowledge they acquire meets current standards.

While the franchisor is responsible for providing the materials, the recruitment of lecturers and mentors is the responsibility of the franchisee. It is a difficult challenge because the candidates must have not only practical experience in programming but also soft skills to share knowledge. Of course, a franchisor helps in selecting candidates and suggests how to recruit them effectively, but finding the right people on the market is still a task for the owner of the licensed school.

Building a team of lecturers is one thing, but the franchisee shall also take care of creating a management team. Existing companies have more room for maneuver in this respect - instead of external recruitment, they can use existing human resources and delegate appropriate people to a newly established school of programming. At the start, people responsible for marketing, sales, and customer service will be needed. It will also be necessary to have a general manager in charge of the whole academy. It is also worth providing the students with the care of an HR specialist, but his services can be successfully outsourced.

A WELL-TRAINED BUSINESS

The next step is to equip the newly formed team with the skills required to manage the bootcamp. The initial training is part of the franchise package and is organized and conducted by the franchisor. The only costs incurred by the franchisee relate to the transport and accommodation of employees during the training. It takes place in the Warsaw headquarters of Coders Lab, where the franchisee's employees get acquainted with all the secrets of running this business. The training is split into two parts - one dedicated to the managing personnel, the other - to the lecturers.

Training for managers is conducted by representatives of specific departments of the company. All the knowledge presented is also made available online in the form of an operating manual. This manual is a knowledge base encompassing all areas of managing a programming bootcamp - from sales and marketing, through lectures, to the support of graduates in the process of searching for their first job in IT. It also contains useful contract templates, exemplary graphics to be used in advertising, and examples of successful posts used in social media.

Training for lecturers puts a lot of emphasis on practice - lecturers not only learn the best practices of conducting classes and observe other teachers at work but also have the opportunity to act in the role of the lecturer themselves. The feedback they get after such lessons is extremely valuable and allows them to better prepare themselves for the role of trainers.

TOOLS FOR SUCCESS

In addition to the support in the recruitment and training of franchisees' staff, the franchisor also provides a set of dedicated IT systems facilitating the management of a programming school. The first one is a CRM system, called the HUB. In the beginning, with a small scale of activity, it is true that the organization of courses could be managed in an Excel spreadsheet. However, when the number of courses starts to grow, and, along with it, the number of students, graduates, lecturers, and customer service specialists rises as well – it is getting more and more difficult to keep everything under control. The HUB solves all problems related to planning, staffing of lecturers, reporting, and generating statistics.

Another tool that a franchisee receives is a website. Created on the basis of six years of experience of Coders Lab, it is often the first place where the client meets the brand. It has been designed in a way that makes it easier to establish contact with a potential student and shortens the decision process related to joining the course. The franchisee receives a configured CMS with the content in the English language (he can modify and adapt the content to his needs and arrange for translation to a given language if needed).

The third system provided to the franchisee is the Learning Management System. It is used to distribute the learning materials among lecturers and students. These learning materials are constantly updated through this portal. Lecturers gain access to repositories with homework and examination tasks, which they provide to students at relevant courses.

CONTINUOUS SUPPORT

Joining the Coders Lab network makes it much easier to enter the market of programming schools. Franchisees not only gain access to constantly updated training materials, but also receive tools supporting the management of the bootcamp. What is important, the franchisor provides training for the franchisee's staff in every aspect of the school's operation. Not without significance is also the possibility to run your own school under a well-known brand, which is already the strongest in its home market, and is gradually gaining importance in other countries.

Last, but not least, the franchisee has a guarantee that the support for his business will not end at the moment when the initial training is over. The Coders Lab's head office is also at the disposal of partners at subsequent stages of running the business and it answers questions and dispels franchisees' doubts on an ongoing basis. All this makes the school owner have a good chance to evade the dangers lurking in wait for start-ups and gain a competitive position on their market as soon as possible. 

Ready to become an owner of a coding school? Just apply here!