Fast Facts About 5 Types of Tech Training Programs

Tech training

Fast Facts About 5 Types of Tech Training Programs

A new study from JPMorgan Chase examines five different types of tech training programs, and examines the pluses and minuses of each.

Traditional Education: Advantages

These more established programs offer recognized credentials, broad skills development and federal funding.

Traditional Education: Challenges

Universities potentially offer outdated curricula that don’t match employer needs due to their less nimble nature, and they need to work on building career pathways to employees. Students have to commit significant time and money.

Bootcamp: Advantages

Programs offer a nimble curricula and only require 10 to 12 weeks to train or up-skill employees.

Bootcamp: Challenges

Programs often teach only a specific skill set, lack soft skills training, and have a rigorous process for assessment and acceptance. Employers are hesitant to hire bootcamp graduates.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Advantages

The benefits of MOOCs are cost (free or inexpensive), flexibility (learning at your pace), and access to high-quality instruction, particularly for students who might not have this access.

MOOC: Challenges

The drawbacks are a lack of structure and guidance, limited community, and limited job placement support and credential value. It also requires access to infrastructure resources including broadband Internet or a computer.

Internship & Apprenticeship: Advantages

Internships help candidates build relevant skills and focus on competencies. They also are a low risk to employers while giving non-traditional candidates exposure to companies.

Internship & Apprenticeship: Challenges

Obstacles include scaling internship programs, employer burden, employer-specific training, and a need for a new model to determine and assess the competencies needed for apprentices.

Integrated Technical & Experiential Program: Advantages

Programs offer a suite of skills, are potentially adaptive to different learning styles and provide more pathways to technology for diverse candidates.

Integrated Technical & Experiential Program: Challenges

There are significant startup costs, and they are difficult to replicate. Programs also can be difficult to understand and require strong employee relationships to ensure the curriculum is current.