Yeah, I know, you thought we announced a Data Engineering bootcamp back in March of 2025 - well over a year ago. So what gives - why are making another announcement about a Data Engineering Bootcamp?

Part of the answer to that question is easy - this time it’s for everyone! The Data Engineering Bootcamp as we announced it back in 2025 was only available as part of the grant-supported ProTech program. It was available for free but it was only available to ProTech qualified applicants. One major requirement to qualify for that program was that applicants had to be unemployed in tech, either because they were still searching for their first tech job after completing a training program or because they had been laid off from a tech position.

We ran that version of the Data Engineering bootcamp twice, once as a five month full-time class and once as a nine month part-time class. The program was very popular with both cohorts filled to our class limits. However, we immediately started getting questions about when there might be a “normal” bootcamp available for public applications from adults looking to start their tech career as a data engineer. One of the limitations to the original version of the Data Engineering bootcamp was that it required applicants to already be trained in programming, which is of course very different from our traditional open enrollment bootcamps in software development, data analytics, or data science, none of which require prior experience in programming. But we also got questions from NSS grads and others already working as tech professionals regarding when there might be a DE program available as a professional development program that could facilitate moving laterally from other tech career paths.

The Data Engineering Bootcamp we are announcing this week is designed to address both of those needs. And as a program it achieves a few “firsts” for NSS:

• It’s the first program initially launched as part of ProTech to be relaunched as a public class.
• It’s the first NSS bootcamp to be designed intentionally with two potential starting points: the first for motivated but as yet untrained adults seeking to start their tech career in data engineering and the second for trained and potentially already working professionals seeking to add data engineering skills in order to broaden their career options.

Let’s dive a little deeper into the idea of having two different starting points to meet the needs of different types of students.

The first starting point is for a traditional new NSS bootcamp student: an adult with aptitude and motivation seeking to acquire the skills to secure an entry-level role on a tech career path, in this case the data engineering career path. No prior programming experience is required. The program is a 12 month, part-time bootcamp known as Data Engineering with Python Fundamentals. Classes meet two evenings per week. The opening 3 months of the program provide an intensive introduction to programming using the Python programming language (the most common programming language used in data engineering as well as data analytics and data science and also common in software development and AI engineering). The remaining 9 months of the program covers a wide range of data engineering topics - rather than repeat them all here I suggest you check the program page for the bootcamp to get a solid overview of the course contents.

The second entry point is known simply as the Data Engineering Bootcamp. It is intended for students that are already trained in programming that are seeking to acquire a comprehensive awareness of the full scope of data engineering as well as hands-on experience using many of the most popular data engineering tools to implement data engineering solutions across the full data engineering lifecycle. These students might already be working in a tech career as a software developer or a data analyst, or in other tech roles where they take advantage of prior programming training or have acquired programming skills - this might include QA engineers, systems administrators, dev/ops engineers, certain cybersecurity roles, etc.

This second entry point might also be appropriate for students not yet working in a tech career who have completed a bootcamp in data analytics, data science, or software development, or students who recently earned some other credential such as a computer science degree or some computer information systems degrees. These students would be seeking to add hands-on, professional skills in data engineering to facilitate their pursuit of a tech career.

Whoever they are, students in Data Engineering Bootcamp will join the students from Data Engineering with Python Fundamentals for the data engineering curriculum in a 9 month, part-time program as outlined in more detail on the bootcamp’s program page. We will unpack what this means in another blog post next week.

Applications are open for the first cohorts of both Data Engineering with Python Fundamentals and Data Engineering for Trained Programmers & Analysts. Data Engineering with Python Fundamentals cohort 1 starts on January 12, 2027 and the first cohort of Data Engineering for Trained Programmers & Analysts starts on March 23, 2027.

Details of tuition options, financing and financial aid options are all outlined on the program page[make a link]. Like all NSS bootcamps, we are offering our Opportunity Tuition plan to qualified students as well as our regular tuition plan, a more generous early bird option, payments plans, and partial scholarship options. We also expect to roll out student loan options in the near future similar to what is available for our other bootcamps.

Next week, we'll share details on our Data Engineering Jumpstart which will start in November.