Education startup General Assembly, hot off raising a monster $70M round of funding, has partnered with Google to offer an immersive course on Android development.
It’s 12 weeks, full-time and will start being offered next year in NYC (January) and San Francisco (February), expanding to other campuses as the year goes on. The cost for students? $13,500, which can be financed. This is an important partnership for both companies, as Google can work closely with GA to make sure that developers are being trained in line with their principles, influencing what these developers may one day put out into the world and onto the platform.
GA’s CEO Jake Schwartz cites “tremendous demand” for app developers and says “Developing this course in partnership with Google allows us to provide students with the most relevant skills, ensuring a reliable pipeline of talented developers ready to meet the urgent demand of companies in the Android ecosystem.” They’ll probably help crank out some new employees for Alphabet’s Google, too.
There are over a billion Android users globally and there’s always a need for new and interesting apps. Whether it’s a company that has iOS products but haven’t ported over to Android yet, or a startup thinking about where and how to launch once they build, these courses could actually make a difference.
Along with the focus on Java, XML, user interface development and Material Design, GA says that the courses include access to their career prep services and support, workshops, networking events and coaches. It ain’t magic, though; students are going to have to put in the extra hours to hone their skills and stand out.
While Schwartz says there’s “tremendous demand” for app developers, there’s an even bigger demand for damn good ones. Hopefully we’ll hear about some of the latter coming out of the program….because otherwise, what’s the point?