In Hong Kong, you can learn to code for free until you’re hired

Photo credit: Alisha Ramos.

Hong Kong’s education system is not known for encouraging innovation and creativity, as tech education is only available in select schools. But the private sector has come to fill the gap. First Code Academy and Koding Kingdom aim to equip children and youth with basic coding and problem-solving skills to prepare them for the digital economy.

Computer science could help with Hong Kong’s growing economic inequality as well. As UCLA researcher Jane Margolis and University of Pennsylvania professor Yasmin Kafai put it, “Computer science can help interrupt the cycle of inequality that has determined who has access to this type of high-status knowledge in our schools.”

Examining accessibility to tech education

Unfortunately, the barriers to entry for coding education can be very high. The average tuition for coding bootcamps in the United States, according to Course Report, is US$11,063 for an average of 10.8 weeks.

In Hong Kong, General Assembly’s (GA) online 12-week web development immersive, costs US$11,000 (or HK$85,000). For many, this is a big commitment of time and money that may not be manageable. Hence, GA provides assistance in financing and has options for an 18-month interest-free loan. Other Hong Kong-based startups are trying to solve potential students’ pain points as well.

Deferred tuition

Photo credit: Xccelerate.

Hong Kong-based Xccelerate offers a 16-week “Zero Tuition Until You’re Hired” immersive coding bootcamp that promises you 1,000 hours of coding over 16 weeks. The cost? Fifteen percent of your first year’s salary, payable in installments.

Before you balk at the numbers, consider this: The average salary for a software developer in Hong Kong is US$36,000 (or HK$278,015) per year. Fifteen percent of that would be US$5,370 (or HK$41,702.25). San Francisco-based App Academy takes 23 percent of your first year’s salary or an upfront fee of US$17,000. Viking Code School will cost you 20 percent of your first year’s salary, payable over the first 6 months of your job, or a fixed fee of US$12,800.

Accelerate instead focuses on a merit-based admission—students are required to complete a seven-step screening framework. The company’s chief operating officer, Stephanie Martin, shares that this deferred tuition model was deliberately designed:

“Only the higher income can afford the coding bootcamps available in Asia right now, and, oftentimes, the students are foreigners. We want to offer anyone the opportunity to learn to code and develop more local talent in Hong Kong.”

Flexible learning

Photo credit: Altcademy.

Bridging the education to employment gap