By Ana Ruiz Brictson | News Editor
With an open enrollment and the prospect of “fast access to today’s top tech jobs,” Baylor’s online IT Bootcamp courses are welcoming those within the Baylor community and beyond. Spearheaded by Baylor’s Continuing Education, these courses provide opportunities for those with or without college degrees to learn valuable skills.
Victor Lopez, assistant director for Baylor professional education, said Continuing Education has been a part of Baylor since 1974 and has developed through the years, currently offering predominantly non-credit courses, certificates and licenses.
“For us, we’re really looking at Continuing Education as a way to provide access at an affordable price,” Lopez said.
According to Lopez, IT Bootcamp is a fully asynchronous and self-paced six-month course. However, he said it takes about 20 hours a week to complete it within a six-month time window. Students taking the course have access to the content for a year in case it takes longer than the estimated time to complete.
The three self-paced IT Bootcamps offered are artificial intelligence machine learning, cybersecurity and full stack web development.
“Those are kind of the three areas that we’ve identified that are the fastest growing in the United States in computer science and information technology,” Lopez said.
Lopez said IT Bootcamp is open for people in and outside of Baylor who may have an interest in learning about the topic without necessarily pursuing a college degree in it.
Dr. Sandy Bennett, assistant vice provost for professional education, said the difference between getting a degree and completing IT Bootcamp is the time required.
“We also kind of look at it as what we would call credit versus non-credit,” Bennett said. “So it’s credits toward a degree that a university would offer, whereas non-credit is kind of almost in the other learning experience that isn’t related to an official college degree.”
Additionally, Bennett said she believes IT Bootcamp is more focused and allows those who take it to develop a skill in a specific area. Later on, this skill can potentially be applied to a job; Lopez said that when it comes to hiring in the workforce, IT skills are in high demand.
“Our office is looking at, what is the workforce telling us, what’s the story, what’s the need and how can we meet that need?” Lopez said.
According to Lopez, IT Bootcamp courses cost $4,000. He said oftentimes, employers may be able to pay for courses like these. Currently, Lopez’s team is working on partnerships with the workforce commission and the army to see if they can help pay for the courses.
“There are grants and federal programs out there that would help you pay for a course like this,” Lopez said.
Lopez said there is no need to be a professional or to have a deep understanding of IT in order to be successful in IT Bootcamp. However, he said students should have knowledge of how to navigate the internet and use platforms like Microsoft Word and Excel.
