Don't get me wrong: I'm not suggesting that this program (as it's currently structured) wouldn't be beneficial to the student. There's no substitute for real ex

Don't get me wrong: I'm not suggesting that this program (as it's currently structured) wouldn't be beneficial to the student. There's no substitute for real experience working with a real team on real projects with real clients. I appreciate the level of qualification that you're doing -- I think that definitely protects against (at least to some extent) predatory/exploitative behavior and it's great that that process is part of the program from day one. That said: if a company is getting free (or negative cost) labor for real commercial work that they would otherwise have to pay a substantial amount of money for, there is a clear, material benefit to the company. If this program were ever considered in court, I suspect that it would boil down to figuring out what the ratio of benefits is (is it 20% company and 80% student, vice versa, or closer to 50/50?) and that's a really risky proposition to consider. From my standpoint, the thing that would make this program essentially risk-free is a requirement to pay at least the minimum wage for whatever jurisdiction the company is operating in. That may significantly reduce the number of companies that can/will utilize this program, but it sends a very clear message: Lambda grads are worth paying for, even in an apprenticeship role. Another model would be to have the grad work as a contractor for a flat, predetermined fee on a project identified and scoped at the beginning of the engagement. Additionally, rather than selling this as a mentoring/apprenticeship/internship program, you could consider selling it to employers as a _hiring_ program. For instance, something along these lines: * Work with a Lambda grad for 4 weeks * Employer does all of the vetting steps you mentioned before and pays $x/hour * At the end of the 4 weeks, employer is obligated to hire the grad, try a different grad, or close the role req for x days (or something like that -- maybe if n grads don't work out, waive this requirement or something) Structured like that, it changes the _hiring_ process in the same way that Lambda is trying to change the education process. Best case, I'd be looking at $1600 for the cost of acquisition of a new employee. We have a fairly rigorous interview/hiring process. I'm not sure exactly how much it costs, but the amount of time and attention required from various members of the team is certainly above $1600, so this would be a bargain for me.