Innovative school for programmers Part 2
What is the training
Representatives of the School 42 do not control the work of students and checking only the final work. If students do not fulfill the task completely, it is considered failed (even if it was made 90%). According to Bloomberg, in 2014, the school has eliminated 100 students — they did not meet the system deadlines under the name “Black hole”. Many students engaged in their own projects, which can then sell IT companies.
Students say that the worst time of training his first day. Students make lots of mistakes trying to adapt to the system. To comprehend the principles of work and to cope with the tasks stand alone, not having to enlist the support of classmates. Tired people often fall asleep at the table or even the floor. It is not prohibited.
Applicant Schools 42 sleeping in a temporary hostel. Photo By The New York Times
The building has a shower room, dining room and party room. According to the manual, students are forced to work together, alone almost immediately cut off. Some students come to learn with virtually no programming skills. However, after a couple of weeks to be able to work effectively in a team.
After the first year of study, students can combine study with paid internship in a school. Many graduates of the institution get a job in leading IT companies, including Linkedln, Apple, and Dropbox.
40% of students 42 did not finish high school.
About 11% women.
22 years old — the average age of the student.
That school criticized and praised
According to Bloomberg, the concept of School learning 42 can be used not only in the field of coding, but also in various fields in which practical work is much more important than theory. For example, in journalism as students do not explain anything, they must learn to analyze sources and a critical approach to information.
Another advantage of training is the lack of professors, who often use outdated methods. In addition, according to the newspaper, the person’s ability to work in a team and orientation in narrow fields valued in the IT industry is higher than a diploma.
School 42 is recognized as the best technological institution according online platform for programmers CodinGame. For a revolutionary approach, openness, efficiency, lack of strict requirements and free training school praised the Twitter, Snapchat, Slack co-founders, Airbnb and Nest.
However, the school has faced criticism. One student wrote that he has to work on projects 10 hours a day, but this is not enough — Director of the American branch encourages students to work at least 15 hours a day. The student noted that many students do not work more than 50 hours a week, and he suffers from insomnia.
To do this, the author of the text decided to repeat the plan of his friend: to sleep 3 hours a night and NAP twice during the day, and the rest of the time to devote to the coding. According to him, this mode can be used for six months.
The programmer complained that the school is difficult to find worthy partners for group projects. Allegedly by a lot of people who are either working too little or not enough versed in coding. The workload of the team is often distributed unevenly. Students can abandon the project half for vacation or holidays.
Disadvantages of teamwork noted Bloomberg. Often students are working individually, you might as well do at home or anywhere else. And easier to find on the Internet specialized resources and not among the students of the school. If so, then the benefits of School 42 is reduced to opportunity to work for free on an expensive Apple computer.
But, despite the criticism, School 42 education remains a precedent. As explained by Xavier Niel, with his project, he wants to “change the French mentality”. Each year in France 200 thousand graduates can’t find work. And the school can help many people to reach their potential in the IT industry.
Apparently, the idea of Neela inspired entrepreneurs in other countries. Recently similar projects have appeared in South Africa, Romania, Moldova and Kiev.