Partly quoting myself from another wall-of-text discussion forum where code academies were discussed.[1] Some developers need an introduction and/or mentoring.

Partly quoting myself from another wall-of-text discussion forum where code academies were discussed.[1] Some developers need an introduction and/or mentoring. However, once past the absolute fundamentals (e.g. basic control structures and logic), mentoring becomes more strategic (less about technical details), and improving as a coder is a matter of how adroitly one can understand more complex patterns and absorb novel formalisms (frameworks, languages, hardware, integrations, etc.) Growing beyond the level of individual contributor is working with individuals and teams to coordinate the development of more complex software systems. These human/machine systems are very complex and highly dynamic, to the point that there are no accurate models to describe how they work. EVERYTHING is custom and cutting edge. (I'm thinking here of some of what Paul Ford said in his "What is Code?"[2], specifically section 5.6 "Off the Shelf") This means that the career paths of developers cannot be predicted by simply taking into account educational backgrounds. Models that try to predict developer careers paths from educational backgrounds are not even close to being wrong because they model the reality of software development so poorly. There will be lots of room for grunt coders who start off in code academies, sure. But some of those coders will start entry level and, after much more learning, go on to help develop world-altering highly-regarded software. Some coders trained at the most elite institutions will never contribute even one code block to a useful project of any kind. (I'm exaggerating, but you get my point.) TL;DR: Code academies are simply another means by which humans will become part of the software industry and the status and stature of developers so initiated will be manifold. [1] http://www.metafilter.com/151857/As-Tech-Booms-Workers-Turn-to-Coding-for-Career-Change#6159886 http://www.metafilter.com/151857/As-Tech-Booms-Workers-Turn-... [2] http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-is-code/ http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-is-cod...