Program Overview
Region: San Francisco Bay Area
College: Cañada Community College at Menlo Park
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Area: Career and Technical Education
CTE Subject: Full Stack Development
Department: Workforce Development
Credit Status: Non-degree/Not-for-credit program
Cañada Community College at Menlo Park partnered with Qwasar to launch a Full Stack development program with goals to meet local talent demand, serve the local population, and provide essential career on-ramps, all while using competency-based education. This partnership is a unique opportunity for community college students in the San Francisco Bay Area to get into tech through an affordable, skills-based pathway.
The program partnership was launched thanks to Dr. Julian Branch, Director of Workforce Development at Cañada College at Menlo Park, Dr. Damany Fisher, Regional Director of Special Projects at Bay Area Community College Consortium, and Dr. Tammy Robinson, Vice President of Instruction at Bay Area Community College Consortium.
About Full Stack Development
Full stack development is a growing field, not only in California, but in the United States as a whole. There is a 13% expected increase in full stack employment as well as 6,907 open full stack jobs just in the Bay Area, California. The need for tech talent is large and Cañada saw an opportunity to close the gap in achievement, and get more students into tech. This program filled a key gap and was of high value to the local employers in the region. The program enables those who cannot afford a bootcamp or four-year degree to access a high-quality education option for a career change. This suits both Cañada through increased enrollment, and the local Bay area in filling tech talent roles with high quality candidates who were educated through competency-based methods. Many students are able to expand their horizons and explore new tech talent fields through the Cañada-Qwasar Full Stack Development program.
Program Target Audience
The full stack developer program, a not-for-credit program, targeted community college students in California, local learners in the San Francisco Bay Area, learners with full-time jobs looking to get into tech, and learners in adjacent fields who want to get into software. Students needed a base understanding of coding, and web technologies, as well as demonstrate a keen interest and dedication to a career in the Technology Industry.
What a Skills-based Learning Model Looks Like
Learners are provided with coding exercises and software projects to complete in their track. They are able to do this by using Qwasar’s experiential learning platform backed by AI and automations. Students attend weekly meetings in their cohorts to stay accountable for their work and code together in collaboration sessions and live coding. These coding workshops are a great way for students to see different perspectives and debug together.
Developing On-the-Job Skills and Career Readiness
As part of the program, developing job-readiness skills and preparing for a career are incorporated throughout the 9-month training. The projects in the curriculum reflect real world software scenarios and production standards, preparing them for building real software used by clients. Throughout the program, learners are using an IDE and a Git system, two of the most commonly used tools in industry. Also, through peer-code reviews, students are able to give feedback to others as well as receive feedback on their own work, which is exactly what happens with peer code reviews on the job. Some of the many on-the-job skills that students master in the program include active listening, collaboration, high-level thinking, confidence in code quality and independence. These are skills that are crucial for any 21st-century tech job.
In terms of daily activities, the program consists of coding, learning, and peer-code reviews. Daily coding may consist of code design, architecture, planning, debugging, testing, fixing, deploying, etc. Daily learning involves figuring out what needs to be understood, working through complex problems, and applying that knowledge to complete a project. Through peer code reviews, you will be both giving and receiving reviews on submitted work.
In the Full Stack Developer Program at Cañada, students responsible for their own learning as a developer would be responsible for their work or projects on the job. Project-based learning encourages learning ownership and resourcefulness, taking responsibility to solve problems by research, watching related videos, and using resources available on the internet. It’s up to them to identify what new terms or vocabulary appear with each project, what they don’t understand and need to research, what possible solutions or options exist, and how to evaluate the different options they think is viable. There often isn’t a right answer for the best way to complete a project as there are trade-offs, and learners ultimately develop key decision-making skills in the face of uncertainty. Software either works or it doesn’t; it does what it should, or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, students have to fix their code and need to rely on their peers and teammates to help them debug and improve their code, which resembles a job-like situation.
Participants complete over 40 technical interviews in this program which not only prepares them for the interview process, but builds confidence in their abilities and competency in portraying their skills. Being able to get through a whiteboard technical interviews to receive a job offer is a crucial part of becoming a Full Stack developer.
By designing a program that truly reflects what happens in the workplace and in software developer jobs, learners develop key on-the-job skills, a technical portfolio, and interviewing skills that create career on-ramps and long-term career success. Few other programs are so closely aligned to practicing on-the-job activities and skills.
Using a Competency-based Learning Model for This CTE Program
The Qwasar full stack development program encompasses the eight elements of competency-based education. From the conceptual design of the curriculum and program to the transparency in regards to student learning, the program is designed to develop competencies and enable students to progress based on competency. The program uses advanced project-based learning, so students are engaged in meaningful learning. There are clear expectations and competencies for students to understand and be able to display. The implementation of this program is robust and reflective of what developers do in the workplace, and includes daily stand-ups, live coding sessions, coding collaboration sessions, and a weekly presentation on tech startups. All of these activities bring the cohort together to encourage collaboration and engaging with other learners, enhancing the learning experience and enabling students to see problem solutions from other perspectives.
How we Met the Local Population Where They Are: Accommodating Different Competency Levels
With a view of serving the local population, the program required a working level of English, a high school diploma, and some previous coding experience or exposure. Naturally, the program attracted a wide variety of participants: young and old, experienced and inexperienced. Some had backgrounds in network engineering or other engineering fields, while others worked in retail and wanted to get out of the industry.
Using competency-based learning, participants are able to advance at a speed that reflects their competency level based on their previous experience. If they have no experience, they go at a slower pace, but if they’ve coded before, they can go faster through the curriculum. This approach allows Cañada to accommodate different learners while still offering an engaging, challenging, and career-focused learning opportunity. Those who had less experience needed a bit more early-program support, which was available through small groups and mentors.
For students who have some coding experience, this part-time program will bring them straight through to getting an entry-level job as a full stack engineer. For those already employed, this program allows students to enhance their learning and make a career switch to full stack development.
Offering an Affordable Program
The program was priced at $99 for the entire 9 months. Thanks to the city of Menlo Park and Dr. Julian Brunch, the Director of Workforce Development at Cañada College at Menlo Park, this class is being offered at a subsidized rate. Through Julian’s efforts in using these funds, students are able to benefit from the lower costs to attend this program.
Working with Employer Partners to Create Opportunities for Graduates
Along with Cañada Community College and the Bay Area Community College Consortium, we have developed partnerships with local and national employers looking to hire skilled software developers. There are partners who help us with connecting students to apprenticeships, some help us connect with internships and employers specifically looking for a diverse workforce, employers committed to giving interviews to students who come out of the program and interested in working for their company. These are win-win-win situations where learners win by gaining employment, companies win by gaining skilled, competent and diverse talent, and colleges win by succeeding in their mission to foster career advancement and equal learning opportunities. Our partners include Capgemini, Opportunity@Work, and others.
