Our top priority at Northcoders will always be the health and wellbeing of our staff and students. In light of the recent COVID-19 outbreak, we have taken steps to ensure that everyone is safe, and to prevent further spread of the virus.

May 13th Update

Today, we're announcing yet another new course date for our Web Development: Remote course.

Learning during lockdown has been one of the greatest positive trends of the coronavirus economy, and so many of you have expressed an interest in learning to code that we've decided to add a further date: 22nd June.

Many of you have asked when our campuses will reopen, or when we will be adding course dates for our 12-week coding bootcamp, the Developer Pathway. Our priority right now is assessing how we can reopen our campus as safely as possible – even if that means opening after official advice says that we can. We will be reopening campus as soon as we can in a safe way, in line with government advice. It's likely to be some time during August and September.

We will share any news here when we have it.

In the meantime you may also like to read this recent update from Chris Hill, our CEO, where he goes into depth about what Northcoders has done during lockdown and his assessment on how things will change.

April 6th Update

It's here! We've been very busy behind the scenes creating a purpose-built online course designed to help you become a web developer.

We could tell you about it here – but the best place to go for more information is this blog!

March 25th Update

We’ve been energised by the feedback we have received from many of our current students about how the course is going in its remote format (we’ve been enjoying it, too..!) However we know that, while remote learning has some definite benefits, it also presents different challenges – particularly for our team and those with children, for example. 

So, for the time being, we have decided to postpone all of our courses starting on or after April 20th 2020.

We’ll reopen our campuses once Government advice changes. 

Our Onboarding Team will be working throughout the pandemic as usual, so if you want to be at the front of the queue to learn to code with Northcoders at a future date and get your place secured, you can apply to Northcoders as usual. 

You can attempt our Entry Challenge (remotely), so that you can have confidence that you have a place on our courses waiting for you when we reopen. You can then receive our Precourse, which will give you plenty to look at between now and then. We will still be available online to help you with your code!

We anticipate that a lot of people will want to start when we reopen, so we will be offering places on our first few cohorts to you in the order in which you pass our Entry Challenge and confirm your acceptance of a place.

March 20th Update

We have taken the decision to move all of our upcoming Manchester cohorts back by one week. We think that this is something that will help make the remote delivery of our courses even better. Let us explain why!

Now that we’re temporarily delivering our courses remotely using our (fortunately) tried-and-tested remote format, there’s no longer any need to separate our courses in Manchester and Leeds. Running them together means that our team will be able to focus on delivering just four courses at once instead of eight (usually four in each location) at a time when we anticipate that some of our staff may need to be absent. Right now, courses in Leeds run 1 week later than in Manchester – this is why we have decided to align them by delaying all Manchester courses. Here are just a few ways that this will improve our remote courses:

• More support than usual. By running just one Developer Pathway, our team will have even more bandwidth than usual to ensure you have the support you need throughout the day. The student:tutor ratio is likely to be much better than usual!
• More people on each course. After four years, we know the power of fresh perspectives and sharing ideas that groups of people generate – that is really one of the most valuable things about courses like these.
• More focus. Allowing our team to focus all of their energy on one Developer Pathway course during a time when it’s likely some of our team will be absent will mean faster improvements and consistency at a time when the outside world is changing fast.

We strongly believe that the positive effect of delaying these courses by one week will be made worth it by creating a stronger, closer, more productive and better supported community of coders.

March 16th Update

From Tuesday 17th March, both of our campuses will be going full-remote, with the exception of our Project Phase groups who we don't want to disrupt. The Manchester Graduation Showcase will be live-streamed as usual from our YouTube channel on Friday 20th March.

We will also run the first day of our upcoming cohort (March 23rd) in Manchester, before moving to remote work on the 24th.

The rest of the course will be delivered by our teaching team remotely. After trialling this on Friday, we are confident that we can maintain the quality of content being delivered while ensuring the safety of our students and staff.

We will continue to follow government guidelines for any developments regarding COVID-19, but we are prepared to continue remote working for as long as we feel the health of people of Northcoders could be at risk.

Introduction to Programming will no longer run until further notice.

March 13th Update

We have now conducted a planned closure of our Manchester Campus, to assess our emergency procedures, and our students’ capabilities for being taught on a fully remote basis.

We are well practiced in remote delivery, and having practiced full-remote, know that all of our existing course materials can still be delivered to the standard our students expect. This includes our lectures, 1-on-1 support sessions and mentor meetings.

Currently, all of our events and delivery will continue on site, but the situation is evolving quickly, so please pay attention to this blog and our social media for further updates.

FAQs

I’m a Northcoders student - can I still attend campus?

All course material will be delivered remotely except for those on Project Phase. We will continue to follow government guidelines for any developments regarding COVID-19, but we are prepared to continue remote working for as long as we feel the health of people of Northcoders could be at risk.

What happens if I develop symptoms when working from home?

If you feel well enough to work, please continue to do so. Otherwise, let your mentor know that you're off sick as you normally would. If you miss a significant portion of the course due to illness, thanks to the design of The Developer Pathway, you can repeat that block.

I’m a Northcoders Hiring Partner - can I still hire?

Of course! People are still graduating as normal.
If you’d like we’ll work with you to arrange remote interviews, and help you to stream your Hiring Partner Presentations.

Who can I talk to in order to find out more information?

We will keep this blog and our Twitter account updated with any upcoming changes, but if you'd like to get in touch please contact us on 0333 050 4368 or [email protected] to find out more information.