Junior Developer - Learn to Code in 12 Weeks

Learn to Code in 12 Weeks

 

Makers Academy is Europe's leading Web Developer bootcamp. With our help, you'll learn the principles of software craftsmanship and we'll also help you get your first job. We've graduated over 1000 students into their dream jobs as junior developers.

 

We believe that learning to code consists of much more than just the materials we provide and the curriculum we've created. We currently use a mixture of workshops, exercises, projects, classroom break-out sessions and end-of-week challenges to help our students understand programming. The immersive environment, having expert coaches on hand all day and pairing with other students are all key to our educational process.

 

The Six Pillars of Makers Academy

We exists to help motivated beginners become awesome junior developers.

1. We see coding as a craft

Hacking things together is easy, producing elegant, maintainable, robust software is hard. Our students see themselves as artisans, striving to write high quality software using the state of the art techniques.

2. We love pair programming

Pair programming is a key part of Makers Academy experience. The code produced by a pair of developers is of a higher quality; we learn better if we pair on a problem. Our students learn to embrace pairing.

3. We use agile practices

Our students experience working in agile teams throughout the course, learning to collaborate, deliver to tight deadlines, resolve conflicts, and efficiently communicate with each other. They recognise that these skills are as important as coding.

4. We learn by doing

Our students appreciate that listening to entertaining lectures is fun but they will only learn the hard way: by writing code themselves. They aim to spend almost all their time at Makers Academy building software, not listening to others telling them how to write code.

5. We drive our own learning

One of the main skills of a software developer is the ability to learn. At Makers Academy our students learn autonomously while being surrounded and supported, but not lectured to, by professional software developers. Makers Academy’s reputation rests on how well our graduates can learn and progress independently.

6. We look after our health

Makers Academy is a bootcamp, so it will require all your emotional and physical reserves. Our students do not neglect their wellbeing because they know that sound mind, sound body and peak learning performance go together.

 

After completing your course you will then be looking for Junior Developer roles where in 2017 the average salary for Junior Developers is £35,000!

 

Please see the outline of the 12 week course below

WEEK 1

Test-Driven Development and Object-Oriented Programming

The main topics of week 1 are test driven development and object oriented programming. By now, you'll have some experience writing pure Ruby code and are familiar with the functionality of core Ruby classes. This week you start creating your own classes in a test driven way. The aim of this week is to understand how to structure code using objects. You'll also meet the careers team who will be helping you get jobs at the end of the course. Weekend challenges are completed each week to reflect and consolidate the learning from the previous week.

 

WEEK 2

Further TDD and OOP

This week, you'll work to reinforce and deepen your understanding of test driven development and object oriented programming. You will learn techniques for designing, programming and refactoring object oriented code. These techniques help you write code that is easy to read, change and maintain.

 

WEEK 3

Introduction to Web Development

By now, you should be comfortable using Ruby and writing object oriented code in a test driven way. In week 3 you'll focus on the fundamentals of the web: HTTP protocols, the Sinatra framework, HTML & CSS. You also learn how to deploy our code to Heroku and use the development tools in Google Chrome. Finally, you'll also learn how to use Capybara to test drive web applications. This week is usually a popular one, as you're finally able to deploy a working application to the web.

 

WEEK 4

Databases and User Management

It's time to learn how to add a relational database to a Sinatra application using DataMapper. In this week you look at relational databases, key-value stores and SQL. You'll also spend a lot of time discussing proper management of user accounts along with hashing and salting, choosing appropriate hashing algorithms and mitigating common security risks. You'll write a user management system (sign up, sign in, sign out, etc) from scratch, paying special attention to the security aspects. This is an important milestone as you'll now have a full picture of web development.

 

WEEK 5

Front-End Technologies

Now that you can build test-driven, secure, database-backed web applications, it's time to start talking about front-end technologies: JavaScript, jQuery, AJAX and responsive design. Now you start to explore a new language: JavaScript, also known as the language of the web.

 

WEEK 6

Project week 1

This week is all about teamwork as you're introduced to some techniques and practices common in an Agile or XP workplace. Working on a set project in small groups, you'll learn to master Git workflow, QA, Standups/Scrums, Kanban and pair programming in a team environment. This is also a great opportunity to practise and consolidate the skills and concepts learned in previous weeks. This week you'll also start working with the careers team so you can start planning your job hunting strategy.

 

WEEK 7

Further JavaScript

You'll come back to JavaScript this week by building a JavaScript testing framework - no fancy frameworks allowed! Students will demystify the inner workings of JavaScript frameworks as they build everything from the testing platform to the front end architecture of their application in pure JavaScript. Your careers session this week will be around how to sell your experience to potential employers.

 

WEEK 8

Ruby on Rails Basics

In week 8 you'll start working with Ruby on Rails. By now you have a solid understanding of Ruby, the web (HTTP, HTML, JavaScript, etc) and experience using databases. Armed with all this knowledge, you'll find Ruby on Rails easy to understand as it merely automates what you can do without it. This week ActiveRecord is part of your learning, the asset pipeline, routing and Rails architecture. Our Careers team will run you through challenging your preconceptions about what kind of company you want to work for.

 

WEEK 9

Project Week 2

This week you consolidate your learning by building a full-stack project using everything you've learnt from the previous weeks. Agile, Git workflow, User Stories, and teamwork are revisited in another team based project. Part of your learning this week will also include some advanced job hunter techniques.

 

WEEK 10

Individual Technical Challenges

This week you get back to pure object oriented design with a series of individual challenges designed to stretch your understanding of techniques for OOD. This week will reinforce behaviours like testing first, using enough design upfront and using the XP values to guide your behaviour as a developer. The challenges this week will be undertaken individually, and are designed to mimic technical tests commonly used by employers as part of the recruitment process. You'll also start practicing technical interviews and networking.

 

WEEK 11

The Final Project

By now you are confident Junior Developer. To put your skills to the test, you'll build a final project that shows how far you've come since you started. This week a fewer new topics are introduced and instead you focus on building the first version of your final project.

 

WEEK 12

Graduation

Early in the week is a feature freeze to make sure the final projects are as polished as possible. This is the most intensive week at Makers Academy, when all teams stay late trying to outperform each other to write the most impressive, test driven and clean code. Friday our careers team will put on a job hunting fair in the morning where our hiring partners will be showcasing their job vacancies followed by you giving your final project demos. The evening will be a party attended by friends, families, hiring partners, recruiters, ex-students and prospective students of Makers Academy.

 

 

WEEK 12 AND ONWARDS

 

Post course

After the course, our careers team will provide as much help and support as possible to get you the job you love. You could be starting as a Junior Developer earning up to £35K!

WE HAVE PLACED 400+ STUDENTS IN JOBS AFTER GRADUATING

 

Click apply and fill in our short form and then will contact you to discuss in more detail.