Surge in demand for coding courses boosts confidence at Northcoders
Manchester headquartered Northcoders – a coding bootcamp provider, which also has bases in Leeds, Birmingham and Newcastle – has seen a record 250% jump in new course registrations from people wanting to switch careers since 1st January when compared to the same period in 2023.
Based on data trends, the company expects this to peak next week and that Tuesday 9th will see the highest number of applicants to new courses.
Applications are coming in from across the UK and are primarily for its software development and data engineering bootcamps – both of which are 13 weeks long and start in March.
Northcoders also saw a 48% increase in the number of people searching for ‘coding bootcamps’ over the Christmas period.
The rise in bookings will bring cheer to Northcoders shareholders who saw a huge slump in value throughout 2023, culminating in a cliff edge drop in September 2023 when the company issued a profit warning.
At the start of 2024 shares haven’t recovered to come anywhere close to the £3 a share they enjoyed at the start of the year and currently trade at 135p, but a recovery from the low point of 125p.
The business, which also has bases in Leeds, Newcastle and Birmingham, last reported sales of £3.5m, up from £2.4m the previous year, driven by record demand for consumer bootcamp training, which delivered revenues of £2.8m (H1 2022: £1.7m), helped by geographical expansion and entry into new disciplines
However, a pre-tax profit of £118,176 in 2022 was transformed into a pre-tax loss of £306,908 for the reporting period.
Many of the Skills Bootcamps are funded by the Department for Education.
Sam Caine, chief operating officer at Northcoders – said: “The last few weeks has seen an unprecedented number of people applying for our courses. The Christmas and New Year period has always been a key time for us, but this year there has been a definite upturn. I think much of it is down to people seeing January as a marker – and a new start – so they use the festive downtime to reassess what they want out of life; whether that’s more money, a better work/life balance , more fulfilment in their work or more stability.
He added: “Also, the ongoing cost of living crisis means everyone is still feeling squeezed and that is certainly amplified at Christmas. It seems to be giving people the extra push to change their lives by switching to a career that is in high demand or they’ve hankered after. Moving forward, our focus is on helping as many people possible to realise their goals.”
