Announcing In-Person iOS Bootcamp: Alt-U!

Over the past few years, I’ve noticed a lot of people interested in changing their career to iOS development. Maybe they are web developers, maybe they’re new to programming all-together – either way, it’s time for a change.

A lot of these folks have come to our site, and taught themselves via written or video tutorials. However, others have mentioned that they wish there was a way to get some help (and maybe a kick in the butt) via a live, in-person bootcamp – but at that time, we had nothing to offer them.

But now we do, thanks to our partnership with Five Pack Creative: Alt-U!

Alt-U offers live in-person bootcamps designed to take complete beginners to iOS development and teach you everything you know to excel at a real-world iOS development jobs, through a series of hands-on tutorials and exercises based on the materials you know and love at raywenderlich.com.

Keep reading to find out about Alt-U’s upcoming bootcamps, and how to get your raywenderlich.com reader’s discount.

First Bootcamp: The iOS Apprentice

The first bootcamp Alt-U is on April 24-29 in Dallas, Texas and is for complete beginners to iOS development: the iOS Apprentice.

In the iOS Apprentice, you will learn the fundamentals of iOS development with the Swift programming language.

You will leverage Swift, the iOS SDK, and Apple developer tools to learn object-oriented programming, design patterns, type systems, functional language features, user interface design, best practices in programming, and problem analysis. At the end of the week you should feel ready and confident to explore intern level job opportunities.

In the intense week-long bootcamp, you’ll learn the following topics:

• Build functioning programs in Swift
• Function as a member of a real development team
• Interface with web services to pull data from a remote server
• Manage/share code with git
• Work with debugging tools and methodologies
• Work effectively within an Agile development environment
• Build elegant user interfaces in Interface Builder and in Code
• Submit an app to the Apple App Store
• And much, much more!

Alt-U is taught by the team at Five Pack Creative, an award-winning mobile development shop that has created apps for American Airlines, match.com, and more. The co-owner of Five Pack Creative, Jerry Beers, is a video tutorial team member on our site – you may have seen his video tutorial series on Adaptive Layout.

That’s what makes this bootcamp unique – it’s taught by real developers down in the trenches, teaching you exactly what you need to know to succeed in the real world.

In fact, Five Pack Creative and other companies are looking to hire the best graduates from the bootcamp immediately – so if you’re looking for a job, this is a great opportunity!

Where To Go From Here?

I’m so excited about this, because I really believe this is a great alternative for people who want to get into a career in iOS development, without having to go broke paying for a $100,000+ computer science degree. In fact, that’s how it got its name. Alt-U is short for “Alternative University”.

To celebrate the launch, the Five Pack Creative team has been generous enough to offer a massive 50% off discount to raywenderlich.com readers. Just enter the following code at checkout: RAYWENDERLICH. Note that this offer expires in just a little over a week (April 8), so be sure to sign up soon!

Where to go next depends on you:

• If you are looking to switch your career to iOS development, or know somebody who is, there’s never been a better time. Make the investment in yourself and sign up for this bootcamp, and the team at Five Pack Creative will guide you through the rest!
• If you’re a seasoned iOS developer and like learning via intense bootcamps, you should sign-up to get notified when more advanced courses are offered on the Alt-U site.

The team at Five Pack Creative and I hope you enjoy the Alt-U bootcamps! :]