With a career in app development and the experience as a CTO under his belt, Josh Knell (LinkedIn, Twitter) joined Lambda School to help change the way students think about coding, school, and learning. As the Director of Instruction, Josh is constantly innovating and adjusting the Lambda curriculum in order to make sure that his students are as prepared as possible when they graduate.
Josh Knell came onto the IT Visionaries podcast to discuss the challenges associated with creating – and maintaining – an online coding boot camp designed to change the face of education. Plus, he explains what it means to have a community of well-trained graduates, and how Josh’s past experience as a CTO helps him excel in his role today.
Here are some of the biggest lessons to take away from the conversation.
The importance of Lambda School:
When it comes to the job market, few areas are as rife with opportunities as the computer sciences and programming fields. But not everyone has the skills or knowledge to succeed in those technical fields – and for many who want to change careers, there are limiting factors that make going back to school impossible. Lambda School is trying to incentivize people to enter its program using income share agreements – or a living stipend. That’s what draws people in, but what makes them stay is the curriculum. There is a community of students around the world who are trying to fill in the gaps that exist in the programming world. The intense program prepares students to enter the programming workforce the second they graduate, and then Lambda offers help by placing students in jobs that are right for them.
“We’re trying to create students who can help you immediately,” Gabe says. “We’re doing things that boot camps can’t cover, and we can because of our ISAs and our structure.”
How to set up students for success:
Josh spends a lot of time working on the curriculum and looking at the ways Lambda students could be better served to set them up for success. One of the ways this happens is through a mastery-based progression built into the program called Flex. If you fail an aspect of the program, instead of having to wait to try again for an entire cycle, you can try again immediately. There are also sprint challenges, project-based work, and tests that check a student’s ability to actually build minimum-viable products. Lambda students have to reach all of these bars in order to complete their education.
Then, once students are ready to get into the workforce, Lambda offers resources to ensure they wind up with the best possible opportunities. When students don’t land a job – whether they are not good at interviewing or face other obstacles that make it hard to get hired – there Lambda offers career coaches and help.
“We don’t have a 100% hire rate, but that’s our goal,” Gabe says. “As long as we’re in business, we’ll be supporting our students.”
The need for constant innovation:
Lambda constantly reinvests in itself, because they believe that their own people will be the drivers of innovation. But they need a total mental buy-in from the executive board i order for innovation to occur. Luckily, Lambda has support, because they believe in one founding principle: “Educate your people and form them into what you want your company to look like.”
To listen to the entire interview, click here.
