I have one friend who kickstarted his career with a 3 month course in software development. The deal was: - The study programme is free if you complete it,

I have one friend who kickstarted his career with a 3 month course in software development. The deal was: - The study programme is free if you complete it, otherwise it's $22.000. - Once you complete it, you are guaranteed a job at a junior starting salary. - You have to keep this job for one year; you may get relocated between projects. The consulting company that ran this programme put him on as a "free" consultant: They had sold a number of consultant for a project, and he was deployed along without counting. This meant the customer didn't explicitly pay for his intro, but indirectly they did by overpaying the consultancy. For him it worked out great. But it's not for everyone.