For nearly 12 years, NSS has grown with intention, primarily based on the demand for junior tech talent. Given the temporary slow down in demand for junior software developers, we are realigning our program schedule to better balance the number and types of graduates from NSS over the next 9 to 12 months.
Today, we are announcing that the April and October cohorts of the full-time Web Developer Bootcamp will not be offered in 2024. This is in addition to our announcement last week that the Software Engineering with Java/AWS Specialization program will not be offered in 2024.
With the layoffs among pure tech companies over the past 12 months there is less demand for junior developers. Initial guidance from many of the employers we work with was that they expected the 2023 slowdown to end in early 2024, but in the later part of 2023 it became more obvious that was not yet happening. At this point 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. Between eliminating several cohorts of students, and slightly reducing the size of some of the cohorts we will be starting, we can better match graduate levels with the job placement levels that we have been experiencing.
We do not anticipate any changes to our Analytics + Data Science programs or our part-time Web Developer Bootcamps. In fact, placement rates for graduates of the data analytics program over the past year have tracked very closely to the prior year, so we are not seeing an across the board reduction in demand for junior talent.
This announcement does not change our support for current students and graduates. Our instructors will continue to support current students through graduation and we will start our next full-time Web Developer cohort in May. Our career development services and job search support will continue to be available to all of our graduates seeking their first job in tech.
We are contacting all applicants, as well as all who have accepted offers to the April cohort, to discuss their options at NSS. Outreach to applicants has started and we hope to have conversations with all of them in the next two weeks.
Unfortunately, in a relatively small and lean not for profit that self-funds most of our operations, this reduction in students means that we must reduce expenses. We have taken many steps over the past year to reduce or eliminate expenses but we have reached the point that we will be eliminating a few staff positions. This means that over the next few weeks we’ll be saying goodbye to some very dedicated and hardworking team members who have all done great work for our students and the community. My heartfelt thanks and best wishes - on behalf of all of us at NSS - to those individuals.
While NSS will be a little bit smaller, we will not be sitting still. Over the next several weeks, our team will be reaching out to employers across Middle Tennessee to explore new opportunities. And when the job market strengthens, we plan to increase the number of cohorts again to provide more opportunities for adults looking to start a career in software development.