Our Journey to 12 Weeks

Here at Lighthouse Labs, we’re committed to staying ahead of the curve in coding education and digital literacy. Over the past five years, we’ve launched more than 1000 graduates into Canada’s coding workforce, with 93% of our graduates securing software development roles within 120 days of graduation.

We keep our finger on the pulse of the software development industry, making sure we know what skills will be demanded of our grads when they enter the working world. We don’t just prepare students for their first job, but we equip them with the skills to continue growing over time in an increasingly competitive market.

Our bootcamp curriculum is informed by industry, mentors, alumni, and staff to ensure we understand what it takes to set people up for successful careers in software development. Like good developers, we’re always building on our curriculum to make a great thing even better. With that in mind, we’re about to roll out some major curriculum changes: starting with our June 24th cohort, we’re stretching bootcamp into a 12 week program.

What’s changing?

Our new, extended curriculum will equip students with a stronger foundation of fundamentals to further develop the industry-relevant analytical skills they need to be resilient developers in a demanding industry.

We’re enhancing our curriculum to support a more balanced approach to software development, helping students take the time to consider not only the best solution to a problem, but the why behind that solution. Our students already leave campus as skilled junior developers; now, they’ll also be equipped with a robust foundation to critically evaluate coding solutions.

We’ve added new content with a focus on software engineering principles, helping our students enhance their skills in debugging, writing testable code, data design, and test-driven development.

We believe the best education happens in community. That’s why we’ve replaced the remote week with regular on-site attendance, and added more mentor hours, giving students increased access to a team of developers to support them throughout bootcamp.

To reflect the additional weeks of teaching and mentorship, our bootcamp price will increase in each city. We don’t ever want finances to be a barrier for folks to get a great education, so we have a number of scholarships and financing options available to support students. Keep an eye on our blog - in the coming weeks we’ll release a new guide to financing your bootcamp education.

Why change a great thing?

Truthfully, we change our curriculum all the time. We constantly fine-tune and improve, updating our content and processes to ensure the best results for our grads.

We know our model is up to current industry standards, and our grads have started successful software development careers. Their success is our success. However, we’re not content to stop there.

We've always believed that what differentiates us as an educational institution is our commitment to being proactive and staying ahead of the curve. This curriculum update addresses future industry standards that are becoming increasingly vital for software developers across this competitive industry. By equipping our grads now, we know we’re giving them the skills to be successful developers who will remain at the top of their game.

How does this impact existing students and alumni?

Cohorts between now and June 24 will follow our tried-and-tested 10-week structure. They also retain lifelong access to Compass, our learning management system, where they will have full access to the new material introduced in this update - they get the best of both. The same goes for our alumni; we remain committed to Lighthouse grads and their ongoing development long after they’ve left our campus.

Where can I find more information?

We’re glad you asked.

Our new Curriculum Package is a great place to start. It offers an in-depth peek at the new curriculum, with all the details you want to know.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be talking more about our thoughts on what makes a great developer, and how those beliefs have driven this shift and will continue to shape our curriculum in the years to come. Keep an eye on our blog for further updates and thoughts from our leadership.

As always, reach out if you want to know more. We’re here to chat and answer your questions, because as we often say at Lighthouse Labs, the best things happen in community.