Dive Brief:

• Coding bootcamps and similar intensive computer science training programs could be the next frontier in the for-profit education world.
• While private lenders have fallen over themselves in marketing their loans as strong investments for prospective students, the Department of Education has considered ways to offer federal student aid to the nontraditional programs.
• Traditional for-profit giants Kaplan Inc. and the Apollo Group have made early investments in coding bootcamps, banking on continued growth in the market.

Dive Insight:

Coding bootcamps got a boost from the Obama administration when it announced the TechHire Initiative in March. Grants have been set aside to fund re-training programs that ready adults for new, steady careers, but NPR reports that the early leaders in this sector of the higher education industry are cautious about the rush of investment in their programs. Traditional for-profits have long been criticized for their revenue streams, which rely in some cases almost exclusively on federal aid dollars. Founders of some of the early bootcamps do not want to take the same path. Surely, though, the promise of major profits is wooing others.