The Software Guild: Find Top Courses & Training Locations

The Software Guild programs are small class sizes and personalize their instruction based on the student’s skill level. The Software Guild prepares students with a solid foundation in writing code and provides the right skills and techniques needed to drive success.

The educational approach at The Software Guild combines old methods with new technology. When Eric Wise founded the school in 2013, he based its pedagogy on medieval master-apprentice relationships, focusing on strong mentorships and rigorous practice of technical skills. Since its beginnings in Akron, Ohio, The Software Guild has gone through multiple acquisitions and expansions. Today, the school is owned by The Learning House, under education publishing giant Wiley, and Vice President Rachel McGalliard is the face of the organization. The Software Guild has also partnered with several colleges and universities, including LaGuardia Community College and the University of Delaware, to deliver accredited coding training to students in higher education. While the school continues to innovate in new ways, it remains loyal to the tried and true effectiveness of its high-contact apprenticeship model of education.

School Locations

Although the school no longer maintains a campus in Ohio, The Software Guild continues to teach in-person cohorts at its locations in Louisville, KY; Minneapolis, MN; and Atlanta, GA. The school also runs online courses available around the world and is equipped to deliver corporate coding training in a range of languages.

Subjects Taught at The Software Guild

The curriculum at The Software Guild focuses on web and software development, where students learn languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, .NET/C#, and Java, and settings like object-oriented programming and database-driven web applications. Corporate employers can also contract The Software Guild to teach their employees further dedicated subjects like data analytics and application development. With Noble Desktop’s Classes Near Me tool, prospective students can find and compare additional web development classes and bootcamps.

What Classes Are Available?

All students at The Software Guild start with the school’s Introduction to Web Development. From there, students can choose between two tracks, .NET/C# or Java, to continue their coding studies. After they have completed their track, graduates unlock access to the track they didn’t take, which they can study on their own time with support from the guild community.

Class Formats

The Software Guild’s Introduction to Web Development is offered exclusively as a self-paced online course, which can typically be completed in six weeks. The school’s training in .NET/C# and Java are both offered as in-person and live online bootcamps. The course runs full-time, Monday through Friday, 9 am to 4 pm, over 12 weeks, throughout which apprentices acquire technical coding skills as well as soft skills necessary for networking, teamwork, and job interviews. The curriculum is project-oriented, and by the end of the program, all apprentices will have a portfolio of work and a capstone project to showcase to prospective employers.

Recently, The Software Guild also adapted their .NET/C# and Java training into part-time asynchronous digital badge programs. Apprentices work on a flexible schedule, dedicating 20 hours per week to the course over 10-14 months, depending on how quickly they pick up new skills and become comfortable with their application. While the structure of this program is a little different, apprentices continue to receive rigorous technical training from guild masters.

Admissions Process

Prospective students participate in a three-part admissions process to join either the bootcamp program or the digital badge program at The Software Guild. Applicants complete a very short online application form, then participate in an interview with an admissions counselor. Finally, applicants take an hour-long timed aptitude test. No coding experience is necessary to study at The Software Guild. Instead, the aptitude test assesses if applicants have the skills necessary to learn to code.

Pricing & Payment Options

Bootcamp tuition costs $10,000, plus $125 for the course registration fee. Tuition for the digital badge program works on a pay-as-you-go model divided across the four badges, with discounts offered for badge completion, such that in total the course costs $9,000. The Software Guild works with a couple of financial partners to offer students options for financing their online tuition and has historically also offered discounts to women and veterans. The Introduction to Web Development course is completely free.

Career Support Services

Career preparation is integrated into the bootcamp program. Apprentices attend alumni and career panels and work with career coaches who meet regularly with students for mock interviews, job materials consultations, and other career support. The Software Guild has also adapted career support for their badge program, and apprentices working asynchronously receive substantial job search training from career coaches.

Alumni Outcomes

The Software Guild has graduated over 1,400 apprentices from their programs. The school participates in the Council on Integrity in Results Reporting as a founding member of the organization that cooperatively regulates the outcomes reporting of participating coding schools. Outcomes are divided by campus; so far, only the Minneapolis and Louisville campuses of The Software Guild have reported results. In the most recent results from Minneapolis in 2020, 72% of students graduated on time, and 47.8% of those graduates were fully employed in the tech industry within 180 days of course completion. Their starting salaries averaged $60,008 annually, with most graduates taking jobs as software developers. Louisville most recently reported outcomes in 2019, with 62.5% of its students graduating on time. More of their graduates found full-time employment in the tech industry within 180 days, 63.6%, but their average starting income was lower, at $50,000. Louisville graduates took jobs as developers, software engineers, and software developers.

The school also maintains a list of select graduate profiles for prospective students to read about. These alumni are now employed at companies like Amazon, Best Buy, and RedBrick Health.

What Do Students Say?

Graduates of The Software Guild highly rate their experiences in the school’s programs. The bootcamp experience is intense, with one graduate noting that “the projects you will work on are challenging for a beginner,” and the curriculum uses a flipped-classroom model that can be difficult for students who better learn from traditional instruction. However, students credit their instructors with successfully navigating them through challenging material. One graduate observed that instructors “will NOT rubber-stamp a pass” on “something you wrote that is not your best effort,” but rather “will help you understand what you did wrong in a project, and they are not afraid to stay after or turn up early just to help out.”

Another successful graduate similarly praised the faculty, saying, “the instructors are legitimate masters at what they do,” and his instructor “was extremely supportive [and] patient, and explained the complex depth of full stack web development in a way I could digest.” It might not be for everyone, but many graduates have benefited from The Software Guild’s master-apprentice model of education.

Pros & Cons

The Software Guild’s approach to teaching software development is not typical of the coding school industry. For students with options for learning code, it is important to consider what will work best for them. These are some of the highlights (and low points) of The Software Guild’s programs:

Pros of The Software Guild’s Courses

The master-apprentice style of instruction allows students to closely work with expert instructors
Strong teacher support helps students learn the coding curriculum
Asynchronous education options provide learning opportunities for students around the world
Free Introduction to Web Development course offers students an opportunity to learn about curriculum before committing to a bootcamp or digital badge program

Cons of The Software Guild’s Courses

Programs are intense
The flipped classroom pedagogy can be difficult for some learners
Access to instruction in additional subjects is restricted to employees of corporate partners

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The Software Guild

School Locations

Subjects Taught at The Software Guild

What Classes Are Available?

Class Formats

Admissions Process

Pricing & Payment Options

Career Support Services

Alumni Outcomes

What Do Students Say?

Pros & Cons

Top Courses at The Software Guild

.NET/C# Bootcamp
Not currently offered

Java Bootcamp
Not currently offered

Subjects Taught at The Software Guild

Coding

Java

Map of The Software Guild Locations

Top Certificate Programs

Top Courses

Top Certificate Programs

Top Certificate Programs

Top Courses

Top Certificate Programs

Top Courses

School Locations

Subjects Taught at The Software Guild

What Classes Are Available?

Class Formats

Admissions Process

Pricing & Payment Options

Career Support Services

Alumni Outcomes

What Do Students Say?

Pros & Cons

Top Courses at The Software Guild

.NET/C# Bootcamp Not currently offered

Java Bootcamp Not currently offered

Subjects Taught at The Software Guild

Coding

Java

Map of The Software Guild Locations

.NET/C# Bootcamp
Not currently offered

Java Bootcamp
Not currently offered