Students of NGT Academy can study network engineering, cybersecurity, or software sales. The school offers full-time, part-time, on-demand, and hybrid programs.
NGT Academy entered the tech education arena in 2016 with a mission: to offer a bootcamp experience that fully and reliably trains graduates for tech careers. Dissatisfied with the patchy efficacy of web development bootcamps, co-founders Jacob Hess and Terry Kimbelieved that their network engineering programs could more realistically prepare students to work in the tech industry and demonstrate their skills to employers. Hess and Kim modeled their school after training in the US Air Force, where both served as systems engineers and technical instructors. NGT Academy isn’t their first venture together, either. The pair worked on CheckAction, a project management software enterprise, before moving into civilian network and systems engineering. From there, Hess and Kim developed their school, originally dubbed NextGenT, in San Jose, California, and brought it to Y Combinator for investment. In 2022, NGT Academy participated in the web series “Going Public,” accepting crowd-sourced investments in anticipation of making an IPO.
Since its founding in San Jose, California, NGT Academy has since relocated its headquarters to Phoenix, Arizona. The school operates from the heart of downtown Phoenix, and all of its programs are also offered online.
Program offerings at NGT Academy cover subjects including network engineering, cybersecurity, and software sales. For prospective students interested in exploring their options for receiving an education in technology, Noble Desktop offers the Classes Near Me tool. This searchable database allows prospective students to compare computer science classes, cybersecurity classes and bootcamps, and business courses from education providers located around the world.
NGT Academy’s course catalog includes four classes and one bootcamp: Basic Training, Network Engineering, Cybersecurity Specialization, and Sales Engineering, as well as an Ethical Hacker bootcamp. Basic Training functions as a prerequisite for further study in network engineering and guaranteed admission for the higher-level programs, although talented students are able to test out of the course. Students in Basic Training develop a foundational understanding of IT, especially networks, and practice with Cisco tools as they learn about IP addressing and routing, switching, LANs and WANs, network security, VOIP, wireless networking, and automation. In the Full Stack Network Engineer course, students continue their IT and network training, working with network access as well as IP connectivity and services. With the Cybersecurity Specialization, students develop networking skills targeted for cybersecurity, learning about threats and cryptography and red-team and blue-team security, as well as how to test a system and develop an incident response. The Sales Engineer course trains students for careers in software sales, and the Ethical Hacker bootcamp focuses on red-team offensive hacking skills.
NGT Academy offers a blend of in-person, live online, on-demand, and hybrid courses. The Basic Training program is self-paced, designed to be completed part-time over 12 weeks, and includes mentorship. The Full Stack Network Engineer and Cybersecurity Specialization courses can be studied full-time or part-time live online, requiring 14-28 weeks of study. The Ethical Hacker bootcamp is a part-time live online program held on weekday evenings for seven weeks. Students in these four programs spend significant course time practicing in laboratory exercises and hands-on assessments before taking certification and award exams from institutions like Cisco and CompTIA. The Sales Engineer course is a four-week program combining on-demand study and a weeklong in-person intensive.
With the exception of the Basic Training program, which runs on an open enrollment model, all programs at NGT Academy have an admissions process. Prospective students complete a short online application before speaking to an admissions counselor. Applicants into the school’s courses can have any background but will need to demonstrate technical proficiency. The full application process can be completed in as little as one week. Successfully completing the Basic Training course also allows graduates to enroll directly into the network engineer and cybersecurity courses, bypassing the admissions process.
The Basic Training program at NGT Academy costs $997 upfront, and the base tuition for their Network Engineering and Cybersecurity courses is $12,500. The school promotes its Income Share Agreement (ISA) model for tuition repayment for its programs. Under the ISA, when students make $40,000 annually, they start paying NGT Academy 10% of their salary for four years or until they reach their payment cap of $25,000. The school offers full scholarships for military veterans who contract to work for two years with an NGT Academy partner business.
Students in all courses at NGT Academy participate in live personal mentoring as well as career coaching. Full-length programs, including the Sales Engineer course, also incorporate career development into the curriculum, including 1-on-1 advising on searching for jobs as well as interview preparation and job application development.
NGT Academy does not report student outcomes in terms of graduation or job placement rates. Alumni of NGT Academy programs have found careers at major enterprises such as Amazon, Cisco, Google, and Visa.
Alumni of NGT Academy programs have much to say about their time learning at the school. Students praised the “[g]reat instructors, great mentors, [and] great guidance” that they encounter in NGT Academy courses. One student specifically mentioned the overall community support that the school encouraged, saying, “Students try to help each other throughout the day and I’ve also had one of the instructors solve my doubt at about 2 am.” Some students shared that even in spite of their bootcamp training, the job field for network engineers and cybersecurity specialists is rough terrain. However, students were especially enthusiastic about the career coaches that they worked with. One graduate said that “I would like to give five stars to the career team” because “[t]hey helped me in making my resume, cover letter, LinkedIn, and portfolio” and preparing for the job market.
Learn more at ngt.academy
NGT Academy students can study in the Cybersecurity Specialist course full-time or part-time live online and learn both red- and blue-team testing. Successful graduates earn NCS awards and CompTIA certificates in recognition of their new professional skills.
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Cybersecurity refers to the protection of internet-connected assets. These assets can include servers, systems, hardware, software, and data. Cybersecurity professionals work to prevent and defend companies, governments, organizations, and individuals from cyber-attacks that seek to interrupt service or compromise data. These experts must stay informed about new technologies and threats.