Effective immediately NSS is postponing further enrollments and pausing applications for our Software Engineering with Java/AWS Specialization program (SE program) through at least the remainder of 2024. We are not canceling this program, but delaying the start of any new cohorts. This means that we will not start the cohort previously scheduled to start in July this year.
We are taking this painful step of placing the SE program on hiatus in order to better balance the number and types of graduates from NSS over the next 9 to 12 months with what appears to be the short-term market demand for junior software developers. With the layoffs among pure tech companies over the past 12 months there is less demand for junior back-end specialist developers and we think that the situation will continue through at least the end of this year. Since our goals are focused on placing our graduates into jobs, it does not support our mission or support our graduates if we fill classes beyond the level that we believe the job market will absorb within a reasonable period of time.
This announcement does not change our support for the current active cohort which graduates in June. Our instructors will continue to support current students through graduation. Our career development services and job search support will continue to be available to all SE program graduates from prior cohorts as well as to the graduates of our current cohort.
We are contacting all applicants, as well as all who have accepted offers to the July cohort, to discuss other options at NSS that will allow them to acquire the skills necessary to start a career as a software developer. Outreach to applicants has started and we hope to have conversations with all of them in the next two weeks.
We expect to announce any plan to restart the SE program approximately six months prior to the start date of the next cohort. The earliest date classes will restart is early January 2025, which means an announcement of such a plan would be in late June or early July of this year. Restarting is dependent on the evolution of job market demand for junior software engineering talent.
If you or someone you know were considering the Software Engineering program at Nashville Software School in 2024, we encourage you to explore our Full-time and Part-time full-stack web development bootcamps as a proven alternative for gaining the skills to begin a career as a software developer. For more information about the full-stack web developer bootcamp and careers in software development, consider attending our February online information session on Wednesday, 21 Feb at 5:30pm.