February 2025 News Roundup

Table of Contents

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• Quickstart Expands Its Career Readiness
• Federal-Level Moves Affecting Skills-Based Training
• AI in Software Engineering
• How Bootcamps Are Adapting in 2025
• 2 New Schools & 3 New Programs
• Favorite Pieces on the Blog

February was a pretty volatile month in the US on the federal level, so we’re rounding up the latest news on where funding for apprenticeships, workforce development, and Pell grants for short-term programs currently stand. Quite a few studies were released this month on how AI is affecting tech jobs — Spoiler alert: software engineering fundamentals aren’t being “replaced” as quickly as the headlines would have you believe! We’ve also got the latest on how coding bootcamps are adapting to the current landscape, and how they continue to contribute to the talent pipeline. Plus, learn about the 7 new coding bootcamps that we added to the Course Report directory in February.

Curious about what happened in January? Check out last month’s episode to listen to all the biggest coding bootcamp news from January!

Quickstart Expands Its Career Readiness

• Quickstart announced that it has acquired Career Development Solutions in Austin for an undisclosed amount.
• Simplilearn (which owns Fullstack Academy) announced it has appointed Shane Clem as the new Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, where he’ll be strengthening the company’s collaborations with universities, institutions, and industry partners. 

Federal-Level Moves Affecting Skills-Based Training

• The National Governors Association says that half of all states now have policies emphasizing skills-based hiring for state government roles. Those with these new skills-based hiring policies are also less likely to require degrees.
• The bill that covers Pell grants for short-term programs has stalled out and may have a more difficult time in the near future as the Congressional Budget Office is predicting a $2.7B shortfall in funding, according to David Baime of the Community College Daily.
• Paul Fain in a recent WorkShift newsletter points out that Colorado, Indiana, and Arkansas are doing great work at the state-level creating workforce development programs around middle-skill jobs, and could serve as a template for effective workforce development at the federal-level.
• The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Senator Ted Cruz are working to eliminate 3,484 programs — which includes some workforce development programs — within the National Science Foundation that they deem as “woke.”
• The cuts will affect the National Information Technology Innovation Center, which would have Columbus State Community College lead a group of community colleges across Ohio, Arizona, and Texas to work with employers on developing training programs for jobs in cybersecurity, data analytics, cloud computing, and AI.
• Shalin Jyotishi, the Founder & Managing Director, Future of Work & Innovation Economy at New America points out that, “NSF funding is critical to community college and workforce development leaders on the frontiers of STEM and emerging tech workforce development, in AI, manufacturing, semiconductors, and beyond.”
• Lori Chavez-DeRemer, President Trump's pick for Labor Secretary who is waiting confirmation, expressed support for expanding apprenticeships as well as reskilling and upskilling employees.
• DOGE has terminated the Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship whose focus areas included encouraging the development of pre-apprenticeships that lead to well-paying jobs and the expansion of apprenticeship into cybersecurity, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, IT, and healthcare.
• Miami Tech Works, which was created with a $10 million, 3-year grant from the US Economic Development Administration to bridge the gap between employers and training providers with the goal of creating a sustainable tech talent pipeline, is celebrating its third year and mapped out its goals. 

AI in Software Engineering

• HR Dive reports on Anthropic’s February Economic Index of its study about if AI is replacing jobs. The study found that no — workers with mid-to-high median salary, such as computer programmers, were the heaviest users of AI, but AI was used to assist rather than replace the skills of these workers.
• Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in an interview this month that so far AI is not living up the hype.
• A recent Futurism article honed in on how OpenAI researchers admit that even the most advanced AI models still are no match for human coders. A new OpenAI research paper found that AI was able to fix surface-level software issues in their study, but was unable to fully fix bugs or determine root causes because AI tools cannot understand context, which meant their solutions were insufficient.
• Senior software engineer Namanyay Goel spoke with Futurism about the issues with having new developers rely on AI tools.
• Business Insider looked into the current career ladder for software engineers now that AI is part of the workflow.
• USA Today highlighted a ZipRecruiter study that shows that 64% of employers are looking to increase their headcount this year. 

How Bootcamps Are Adapting in 2025

• Programs like Merit America are announcing new training in areas like healthcare and semiconductors, and is partnering with Austin Community College.
• Coursera’s recent earnings call showed a new strategy to de-emphasize degrees through its OPM contracts and universities and increase emphasis on creating its own content for both enterprise and consumer markets.
• Google announced a $15M grant to over 20 universities worldwide (specifically in Europe, Middle East, and Africa) so students can access cybersecurity education at their campuses. The goal is to encourage more students to start cybersecurity careers in order to fill the current cybersecurity talent gap.
• The Voice Newspaper highlighted how Headforwards Academy continues to support its local community with technical skills training. 

2 New Schools & 3 New Programs

• StackRoute announced a partnership with the University of North Dakota to offer online bootcamps.
• Springboard is partnering with Wake Forest University to offer online bootcamps.
• General Assembly launched its new Information Technology Bootcamp, which includes preparation for the CompTIA A+ and Network+ certifications.
• General Assembly announced a new, free program called AI for Creative Skills Academy, which is in partnership with Adobe.
• Springboard announced a Generative AI for Business short course in partnership with the University of South Florida. 

7 New Schools Added to Course Report

• educative
• SEMRush Academy
• Codewise Academy
• Future London Academy
• ActuaRise
• Suffolk University Bootcamps by StackRoute
• Adelphi University Bootcamps by StackRoute

Favorite Pieces on the Blog

Jess enjoyed speaking with Devslopes graduate Noah who made a career change this year from lift operator to software engineer. Devslopes helped him start working as a freelance developer, which meant he was getting paid for actual development work before graduating!

Liz enjoyed learning about Dillon’s journey into software engineering through TripleTen. Dillon was able to reskill and land his first software engineering job without changing companies.