Rebootkamp extreme learning experience

RBK international American curriculum of “ Hack reactor” is considered as the leader in San Francisco, California in the field of coding. Indeed, our extreme learning methodology combines both the necessary technical skills required for a student to become a  full stack software developer but also a bunch of soft skills necessary to meet the market demand and to excel in the professional world.

 In fact,  we are open to everyone regardless of their ages, nationalities and backgrounds, whether they are looking for a career reconversion or simply wants to learn programing. We offer an intensive program, as after only 16 weeks of studies, the students will get an international degree which will enable them to find a decent job. Thus, to cope with the issue of the increasing unemployment rate.

Our main aim is to help minorities ( Refugees, physically disabled persons,…) worldwide, to build a better future.

 In 2019, the unemployment rate in Tunisia was estimated at approximately 14,90% and due to the worldwide economic crisis caused by the Covid 19 pandemic, this percentage has increased at the 1st quarter of 2020 to reach 15,10% in March 2020.

According to the Tunisian national institute of statistics ( NIS),It emerges, moreover, from the national census on inhabitants and employment for the first quarter in the current year, according to the same index, that the number of jobless stood at 634.7 thousand, against 623.9 thousand during the 4th quarter of 2019.

Thus, the bedrocks of this training is to build and scale the capacity of the student to meet market demands and guarantee employment in the most innovative sectors. RBK have been created in Jordan  in 2016 mainly for a social purpose, which is to cope with the issue of minorities such as: Syrian and Palestinian refugees, physically disabled persons, black people...  and is now operating in Jordan, Tunisia and Palestine. As for Tunisia, RBK has been created mainly to deal with the increasing issue of youth unemployment and for those who are looking for a career reconversion in order to reduce the inadequacy between market supply and demand.

The RBK program uses a powerful new educational technology developed in the heart of Silicon Valley, known as “ Extreme learning”. It combines problem-solving learning, peer learning, Speed learning and intensive psychosocial support to provide a mix of technical and non-technical skills required by industry in order to promote successful full stack software engineers in only 4 months. The methodology used and the benefits it offers to both students and companies explain the high worldwide demand for RBK's agile courses.

We are mainly targeting minorities and marginalized groups such as: Refugees, Physically disabled persons, women.. but also unemployed  youth and people who are looking for a career reconversion  in order to ensure a better future for them. Thus, a better standard of living.

Indeed, RBK provides high quality education that combines the necessary technical and soft skills to meet the market demand in a short period of time and ensuring that its graduates get decent high paying jobs in the most competitive and innovative sectors worldwide .

The high changing working environment due to the continuous technological transformations, boosts ambiguity and uncertainty.

Thus,in order to cope with this issue, one need to be continuously updated with the knowledge and skills sets necessary to thrive and meet the market demand or start his own venture. 

RBK’s technology-based solution is to equip workers with technological and digital literacy as well as the durable skills needed to stay apace with the changing job market, and that through providing high quality education mainly for the marginalized populations in order to access better job opportunities and ensure a better life standard.

RBK is one of the fewest bootcamps in the MENA region and the only one in Tunisia. Indeed, it have as main competitors “SE Factory” in Lebanon, “Coded” in Kuwait and “3W Academy in Morocco”. As for the local competitors, RBK competes directly with “ Go my Code” and “ Holberton” school. 

Nonetheless, what distinguishes RBK from other bootcamps, is its innovative learning methodology combining both the technical and soft skills necessary to adjust to the market needs and succeed as a full stack software developer.

RBK is also the only bootcamp ensuring job placement and follow up after graduation, with our outcome team that do outstanding work in terms of one-on-one meetings, B2B contact and workshops about how to improve CVs, Github and Linkedin accounts.

Our solution is based on a business model that aims to deliver the most value to its customers, through its unique teaching methodology that combines both the technical and soft skills required to thrive not only as a successful full stack developer but also as a good human being. Indeed, apart from the different programming languages that the student will acquire throughout our program, he will be equipped with the necessary soft skills such as: Communication, Public speaking, team management… that will allow him to adapt easier and more adequately to the professional world.

Our solution is also based on an innovative extreme learning methodology that doesn’t only focus on the academic aspect such as: lectures, hacking and pair programming but also the entertainment and psychological care aspect such as: Yoga and meditation, talking circles and social nights. All of that without forgetting the tremendous assistance that our students get while joining our program both from the instructional and outcomes team that are always present to help.

As RBK has been operating in Jordan since 2016, it has succeeded to organize 8 boot camps graduating nearly 250 Silicon Valley-grade trained engineers, significantly enhancing their employment opportunities. Among these graduates, 75%were refugees and/or women.

Indeed, with its high quality education and innovative learning approach, RBK has proven really efficient in terms of job placement, as it succeed to reach 98% only after 6 months of graduation and almost 100% after 1 year of it.

Our main aim is to address the unemployment  issue in Tunisia by providing high quality education.

As we are still a startup in Tunisia with only one year of existence, we are currently serving a target population of approximately 30 to 40 students per cohort. Nonetheless, as we aim to continuously scale up, we are targeting to serve 1000 students per year. In the next five years, we hopefully aim to get 5000 Full stack developers.

Due to the continuous  technological progress and the rapid changing world, the unemployment issue is more and more increasing nowadays. Thus, in order to cope with this issue, we are offering high quality education through an innovative approach called  “ Extreme learning”. Indeed, our approach combines all the required technical as well as soft skills necessary to succeed as a full stack software developer and to successfully meet the market needs.

Well, the major barrier that we are currently facing, is the worldwide sanitary crise of “ Covid-19” that overturned the scales as our business model is mainly based on tuition fees. Nonetheless, we did our best to cope with that as we switched all our courses and activities online through a visio-conference platform. Undeniably, things weren’t at all easy at the beginning but hopefully we quickly adapted to this new way of teaching and living and managed the situation pretty well.

As we are still a startup, this outbreak also caused some financial issues as the number of candidates kept decreasing but hopefully now we are gradually recovering and going back to our usual work routine.

Moreover, as we are targeting minorities namely women and  refugees, we are still dealing with the cultural issue of establishing gender equality as the IT field and more precisely programming is often seen as a men field, which explains the low number of women enrolled in our program. However, we are working to address this  issue as we offered scholarships for Libyan refugees and we got 21 graduates in our 1st cohort combined both of males and females. We then offered scholarships only for Libyan women and they are currently enrolled in our program.

Well, as already discussed in the question before, we are currently working to address these barriers by gradually taking back our usual method of work, by continuing to provide  scholarships particularly for women refugees in order to positively change the cultural mindset.

We are also aiming to tackle the financially tough situation through applying to sector related grants and initiatives.

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RBK family is very diverse as it is composed of different departments: Instructional, Marketing & Admissions, Finance and outcomes.

The instructional team is the one responsible for delivering high quality education both in terms of technical and soft skills. It is composed of a tech mentor, with a computer science engineering degree from a prominent university. A cohort lead with a bachelor

degree in English language, civilization and literature with over 6 years of professional experience in a multinational company besides RBK graduates as Hacker in residence (HIR) with various skills and backgrounds.

The Admissions team is responsible for the candidates’ recruitment process. Thus, the quality of our students including; conducting interviews, on site tests as well as preparing the candidates’ academic files. It includes 5 individuals with university degrees in various fields: Business management, Public & International relations, English language, etc.

The finance team is responsible for all the financial aspects related to the survival of the company and most importantly the well-being of RBK family.

 Finally, the outcomes team is responsible for ensuring the candidates’ job placement through a rigorous and well-organized process, which focuses not only on the technical aspect but also on the soft skills through numerous lectures delivered by certified experts such as: Personal branding, Confidence and body language, Stress management, non-violent communication, etc.

Besides, workshops to equip them with the necessary tools to thrive in the professional world such as: Preparing resumes, writing cover letters, creating Github and LinkedIn accounts, and succeeding job interviews.

We developed a partnership with a recruitment agency called “ Manpower” that will act as an intermediate between our graduates and IT sector professionals. 

As for our financial partners, we developed partnerships with a bank and a micro financing institution  that can support our students with a loan in order to pay for their tuition fees when needed.

Finally, we have also developed partnerships with some sector related IT companies in order to establish B2B contact and ensure our graduates’ job placement.

RBK is a coding bootcamp that offers extreme learning education. It acts as a career accelerator as it equips its students with the necessary tools to become successful full stack developers in only 4 months and excel in the professional world.

Indeed,our value proposition is mainly to offer market relevant training that combines Key IT technical and  soft skills in order to provide industry with highly qualified, job-ready software engineers.

We are namely targeting young people aged  between 18 to 30 years old, have a  basic knowledge of English and a 4-month commitment to our program. 

Due to the continuous technological progress and the rapidly growing world particularly in the IT field, people’s skillset are quickly becoming obsolete and does no longer fit the market needs, which makes finding a job more and more challenging as

one needs to keep updated with these changes in order to be able to survive and succeed in his career. Thus, in order to cope with this issue, RBK launched its 4 months program that guide its students towards a better future.

RBK’s revenue model relies mainly on the program’s tuition fees. Nonetheless, and as  we have a lot of expenses such as:  Campus rent, Staff Salaries, Equipments & Utilities..

We are continuously working to sustain our business through applying to sector related grants and donations and we are continuously  raising our  investment capital in order to gradually expand our business.

We are applying to the Solve initiative in order to overcome both our financial and cultural barriers. Indeed, winning this prize will not only help us ensure our  financial sustainability but also remove or at least reduce cultural barriers by offering scholarships to minorities such as: Refugees, women, physically disabled persons...

We aim to partner with local and international donors and funders in order to ensure a more sustainable revenue stream, thus ensuring our financial stability and the continuity of our business.

We also aim to expand our worldwide presence. Thus, we need partners that will help us for our service distribution and for our media & Marketing exposure.

Well, it will be a real pleasure to partner with MIT faculty or diverse initiatives or with the Solve team members in order to work on our objectives and overcome our barriers.

It would be of a great help and support as well if we can potentially develop partnerships with international organizations such as: USAID, UNDP, GIZ, World bank...

As RBK first goal of existence in Jordan was to help the Syrian and Palestinian refugees in the Jordanian borders by providing high quality education. 

We aim to pursue on this goal by giving access to education to refugees mainly on Libya, due to the political and economic instability that they are facing.Thus, taking part of this challenge and winning it, will enable us to achieve our social goal and thrive as an organization.

As part of our social goal, we aim to promote women contribution through privileging  and giving them access to high quality education in order to develop their potential further and ensure a better future. Thus, a better standard of living .

Well, as we aim to cope with the issue of increasing unemployment, we are here to support anyone who didn't find a job on his field of education or who is looking for a career reconversion or simply wants to learn programming as the IT & Coding sector is the most demanded and promoted sector in today's job market.

As mentioned earlier, since we are open to anyone, we also provide the chance to adults in order to take part of our solution. Thus, enabling them to acquire new technical and soft skills and achieve greater digital literacy.

As we are a bootcamp of full stack software development, artificial intelligence acts as a complement of our service offering. Thus, being qualified for this challenge will help us to diversify our offering, increase our market size therefore amplify our impact in the future and maybe also, in the long run, our worldwide presence.