Code Nation Reviews 

Coding course is excellent but for me i found very challenge to understand and time was too short for learning all the concept. I would love to have more quality time to explore more about Coding course. However i enjoyed the 3 week experience. Thank you

Zero to hero in 12 weeks.

I have to say i was a little dubious that i could learn to code within 12 weeks having never done anything before.
The way the instructors and the curriculum is delivered was well received and i felt that they helped nurture my problem solving skills and set me up for the real world as a software developer.
The projects are a great fun way to learn and you get to interact with your peers.
Great tech stack which the businesses that come to talk to us tell us are exactly what we should be learning.
We had weekly well-being classes and workshops on imposter syndrome which i think really helped calm my anxiety of going into a business after the 12 weeks.
The staff are really friendly and the offices are amazing. You are treated like an adult in education not like a child, if i needed a break i took it. Whether that was to have a quick walk and grab a coffee or some chose to play on the games systems.
Speaking with my colleagues they like Codenation as it simulates the commercial world and it is a great place to start and learn the fundamentals.
Salary wise i'd say it's close to £20k but there are others who have taken roles at £17k and some at £25k. I guess it just depends on the business thats hiring.
I know some people struggled with the teaching style but for me it was a great introduction into my new career.
I'd certainly recommend to anyone wishing to start their career in software development.

Stuff they teach u learn on YouTube and coursera and plural sight for 100-200 quid or free if u get on the promos. Most of reviews are written during the course so they not as accurate. 1-3 star reviews are very honest as i done it and completely agree with them. Overpriced, making it sound better than it is.

This course is highly engaging, highly interactive and challenging. If you are up for it you will learn a lot in the 3 weeks and trust me you will be put to the test of your own capabilities. This is why i loved this course so much. I highly recommend it. It was the highlight of my 2020 . Thank you to Tom and Ezra for their amazing understanding and help they gave me during this time.

First week coding using Python was very enjoyable.
Then the course takes a random turn with creating a web-page to answer unnecessary essay based question, reviewing our own website, as well as random questions about IT in business.
I would argue that this course should be more focused on learning coding, what it is advertised as, not project management skills.

Just completed the three-week Develop Coding course with Code Nation. It was a great experience. Our tutor Liam was brilliant.

I was on the 3 week develop course, Dan was brilliant and thanks to Fiona and Dan for giving me the confidence that I was good enough to carry on. The course was free, managed to get government funding through Ian.

Fantastic beginners course to Coding using Python, HTML and .CSS. Knowledgable tutors, I learnt so much in 3 weeks. Online exercise classes, yoga and talks all added to the college experience. Highly recommend.

Brilliant course with friendly staff. It was a very real experience of working as a developer, with talks from professionals, the chance to join in workouts and a weekly quiz night. The tutors were very knowledgable

Started the course as been ensured will end up with a job first two weeks were great than you get tasks and teachers play fifa or mario kart and don’t really want to know Or tell you google it you need to learn researching. Had zero interviews. IF u can’t be apprentice like myself they just leave you with nothing and keep making excuses or just ignore you I wish I could claim my money back as I’m left with debt and no job. Other 1-3 star comments are also very accurate.

No way worth £6000/£7000!!

Started quite well but was soon clear that the instructor couldn't handle the number of students so much so that halfway through they were removed and we were left with no instructor for the remainder of the course.
For the first 3 weeks the wifi was awful and at times we would be sat there unable to do anything.
The whole course was disorganised, we were promised lessons that were never delivered and often students would sit and complete Udemy courses instead of the lessons that were being taught.
Projects would set but never reviewed or finished.
We were supposed to have weekly one to ones, I think I had two in the whole 12 weeks.
We would be forced to attend talks from employers even if they weren't recruiting which was pointless and time wasting.
Most of the time we were left on our own to play FIFA/Mario Kart.

Pro's
Office was shiny.
Everyone got a MacBook.
Staff were generally friendly.

You're promised by the end to be a full stack developer but ultimately you'll be an apprentice on £17k but your FIFA skills might of improved.

P.S. Don't believe all the 5 star reviews, whilst on the course we were asked to complete reviews with them.

Great time, really useful course and a fantastic introduction to Python, HTML, CSS and a little bit of Javascript

The course was very enjoyable, there was never a boring moment as there was always something to do. The tutor taught in a way that made everything easier to pick up than most courses I have done but he also very helpful when I ever did get stuck with a task or trying to understand something. I would most definitely recommend this school.

I paid for the course in Jan 2019. I often studied 10 - 12 hour per day. And by studied, I mean for the most part sat at a table and watched online courses on Udemy. There was no wifi for the first 6 weeks. We didn't have an instructor for the last 7 weeks due to poor performance. I know people who took the course after myself who experienced the same thing.

They advertise an average salary of 23k, however only one employer offered our cohort a salary of £23k, and that was the job I took. However, it took 6 weeks after the course ended for this opportunity to be presented. Given the financial benefit of putting existing students back through the course again as an apprentice, it was pretty clear that this was the goal given we didn't have a single offer for a direct hire while on the course. Then after making it very clear that I wasn't interested in taking the course again, I had 4 interviews in 1 week for direct hires. This was roughly 17 weeks after I started the 12 week course.

Key Points
- Dean is awesome, give that man a raise.
- Chester Dan was great, but not based at the Manchester office so he only taught us for a couple of days.
-They did eventually help me to get a great job. However, I only secured the job because I took it upon myself to buy 3 Udemy courses and self-teach. So essentially, Code Nation were an incredibly expensive table to work at/recruitment agency.
- Quite clear that they aren't bothered about teaching the students anything, as long as they continue receiving tuition fees.
- The average salary was a lie. Expect 99% of offers to be between £17k and £20k

After apologising for our experience and promising to do better, I have spoken to various people who confirmed that not a lot had changed.

Summary - If you want to pay £7k to play FIFA and Mario Kart in a nice office, go for it. If you want to learn something, just buy courses for £10 on Udemy. However, if you can find an apprenticeship so that you are paid to be there, then why not. Just be prepared to teach yourself.

The course was great. I learned a lot
More than I expected.
Like VS Code, html. CSS. Slack, Trello,
Zoom, Git Hub. I can’t wait to learn lots more now I got the bug.
Codenation are a great company.
They go over the things you are not sure about.

CodeNation is a really great platform to get you into your first developer role.

I started the Master course as a private student, with no coding experience. The fact I left after 12 weeks with a top employer and great salary really says it all.

There are times on the course where you feel out of your depth but the support is there for you. The course covers a wide range of languages and frameworks so it isn't guaranteed that you'll become an expert at everything. It does however provide a great base level knowledge for entering the real world.

CodeNation also provide talks with pledgers/companies, yoga sessions, talks on imposter syndrome and host great networking events all within the 12 weeks you're there.

I'd highly recommend the course and company to anyone. You'll get out what you put in. Those who haven't had great experience simply didn't put the time and effort in to reap the rewards.

Very mixed bag. I quit my job and took out a loan to do the master course with its £6000 cost. I did get an apprenticeship because of it, so ultimately I got what I signed up for. Theres a reason for the two star rating though.

TL;DR started great, fell apart quickly. Apprenticeship tuition lacklustre, absolutely NOT worth it

PROS:
- Some great teachers. There were some knowledgable and helpful staff who would listen to your questions, and would do their best top answer questions. If they didnt know the answer would research it and help out.
- Deans challenges. Dean really is a credit to the place and loved to set challenges as a little extra to the course content which were pitched at a level just slightly above the point of where I was up to. I learned a lot through him
- Thea (the recruiter) was excellent in teaching interview prep!
- Macbook pro to use for the duration of the course
- Great campus location

CONS:
- Very disorganised. Course started well, but the timetable set out at the start fell apart around a third of the way into it. Some topics were just skimmed over with no proper explanation, for some parts the sum of the resources given was a mere presentation slide deck.
- Concerns placated when raised, but ultimately ignored.
- During the first 12 weeks, we quite often were left to our own devices and the daily schedule was non existent by the time we were halfway through.

Apprenticeship:
- After completing the 12 week course I paid for, the apprenticeship started. The first 12 weeks of this are spent at the same site learning the languages and frameworks my new employer required. In my case that was PHP, Vue, Wordpress and Laravel.
That 12 weeks consisted of 2 weeks of taught PHP lessons, around a week of working on wordpress themes, and the other NINE weeks I spent figuring the rest out watching tutorials and teaching myself online, as I could not get any help with any of the rest of it from any member of staff. I could have done that home and learned the same amount.
Asked for support with Vue: got directed to a fellow student as none of the teachers knew it.
Asked for help with laravel: none of the teachers knew it so had to sign up for a laracasts course online.
Asked for help on how to set up and use the wordpress rest api (as required for an assignment): again, left to try and figure it out for myself with no support.

Unless things have improved, I could not recommend shelling out the course fee in good conscience. They talk big, but dont deliver on everything they say

It was amazing experience, Exellent learning enviroment. Great possibility to update my tech skills and learn to code. Exellent tailored to everyone ability to understand tuition.

Amazing way to start your journey into the tech sector and gain a solid foundation of knowledge.

I joined CN as an apprentice.

Positives:

- Location, central with easy access to amenities. Office itself is bright, has good space and breakout/chill areas.

- Equipment, given a MacBook Pro to use for the duration of the course and able to use external monitors in the classroom space. Bonus feature of gaming consoles.

- Staff are, for the most part, friendly and helpful with a good sense of humour. Particular praise to Dean whose patience, willingness to help and knowledge far exceeds the requirements of his position.

- Exposure to employers, businesses and talks from industry specialists. As well as talks on mindfulness, yoga sessions and other useful extra-curricular activities.


Negatives:

- Inconsistent delivery of the curriculum, the course got off to a great start with a promising outlook until it became very clear that the instructor was unable to manage the volume of students and their unique demands. The two one-to-ones I had were rushed and, if anything, pointless given that goals/outcomes were never reviewed for the rest of the course. This was made worse when halfway through our instructor was deemed unsuitable and removed from our cohort. There was then no effort to appoint another and instead junior staff members were left to hold lessons or at times we were left with no agenda for the day. Projects, although interesting and exciting, were often not reviewed and unfinished due to the fast progression of the curriculum which meant any mistakes or misunderstandings were never explained. I had one code review during the whole time.

- Constant, infuriating false promises. You have to stand back in awe at each staff members ability to fob you off with lies and excuses, because at the time they seem very convincing. When seeking extra support or raising a concern with a staff member, you'd be made to feel valued and that your issues would be addressed promptly only for it to become extremely evident that this reassurance had little truth or substance. I had half an hour of additional JavaScript tutoring in the whole 12 weeks despite expressing on numerous occasions that I was struggling. My employer was advised that additional support and tutoring would be given to apprentices based on the tech stack of their individual roles/businesses however, I was left to teach myself a particular JS framework without the required grasp and understanding of JS itself, relying on online tutorials instead.

- From a more personal perspective, I was offered an apprenticeship with certain salary expectations only to discover that this was either a total lie or a huge failure on Code Nation’s part to accurately understand and relay the agreement made with my employer. I was told I could expect a salary of X amount during the course, with this increasing upon completion of the boot camp. I constantly sought written confirmation of this throughout the time at Code Nation, which again I was reassured and fobbed off with excuses. It was only until I later raised the issue with my manager that it became apparent that such an agreement was never made. This put both myself and my employer in an awkward and unpleasant situation. It was no easy decision to leave my previous job/career and my salary/livelihood was a major factor in the decision, I relayed this several times to the admissions team prior to accepting the role. In conclusion, not only were the expectations of my learning experience not met, but also the remuneration terms, both of which have had consequences in the months following completion of the course.

- My employer was treated appallingly and this should be a caution to all ‘pledgers’ considering CN. No complaints were rectified or addressed, emails/phone calls ignored, passed around to different staff. This eventually led to the withdrawal of myself and employer from the apprenticeship programme before completion.