Bitmaker Labs is a 9-week intensive training program that teaches classes in a modern lab setting. We take absolute beginners and teach them the skills necessary to be creative computer programmers. We use innovative education techniques, which allow students to master tough concepts in less time. We are dedicated to changing the world and believe our students have the hidden power to do the same — they just need a little help.
Humans are tool builders and we use technology to solve problems. Computers are just very powerful tools. Understanding how to talk to them and control them is a very valuable skill to have. Programming allows you to become a creator of technology, not just a consumer of it. We believe the 21st century will be defined by the technologies we create. Not being able to program will be like not being able to read or write.
Our program is far too intensive to be offered on just weeknights and weekends. Our goal is to place 100% of our graduates in jobs and we’ve found that the weeknight/weekend model doesn’t develop students to the level employers require. If you want to develop world class skills you have to dedicate time and work hard. There is no other solution.
You are committed and hardworking. You enjoy being challenged and are comfortable with failure. You work well with others and enjoy interacting with people. You are ambitious and are not satisfied with the status quo. You are creative and resourceful. You are a good, compassionate person who loves helping others. You want to make the world a better place. You love solving problems. You love building things.
Our instructors make a living as web development professionals. They use the skills we teach in our classrooms on a daily basis in their own jobs and businesses. All of our instructors have computer science degrees or have attended similar programs in the US. They have launched applications, built successful businesses, given speeches around the world and they are all very involved in the web development community. They’re also very passionate about teaching and empowering others with the skills that have made them so successful in their respective careers.
Paul Dowman (Bachelor of Computer Science, University of Toronto)
Monica Olinescu (Bachelor of Computer Science, University of Toronto)
Khurram Virani (Bachelor of Computing Honours, University of Guelph)
Tory Jarmain (HBA, Richard Ivey School of Business; Starter League)
Will Richman (HBA, Richard Ivey School of Business; Starter League)
It’s definitely not easy. Unfortunately, computers, as powerful as they are, are actually kind of dumb so learning to communicate with them takes time and practice. Learning to code is no different than learning any language, except this one allows you to talk to computers. But there’s hope because anyone is capable of doing it with the right guidance. You’ll definitely struggle at first, but we’re here to help.
There is so much latent human potential out there. Education is due for a facelift. We have this big crazy idea that if you give people the skills to change the world, they just might do it. Empowering people kinda feels good too.
Our classrooms are located in the heart of downtown Toronto. The program is delivered in-person so we expect all of our students to be in Toronto to attend classes during the 9-week program.
Absolutely! We know because we’ve done it. In 9 weeks you’ll build a foundation of skills that will allow you to continue learning after you’ve left. We don’t just teach you web development, we also spend a lot of time on sharpening your learning skills. We believe there is no replacement for hard work so we try and instill that in all of our students.
Once accepted into the program students are given a mandatory 50 hour prep course that takes them through the basics of HTML and CSS. This program will lay a light foundation and get you thinking about important concepts before you arrive at our doors. We have instructors that are available for help with the curriculum.
We expect this to be your primary focus for the 9 weeks you’re in the program. Balancing a job or other commitments will be impossible if you plan on being successful. Between class work, lectures, group projects, pair programming, hackathons and all the other things we throw at you, you’ll barely have time to sleep. We promise you’ll have fun, but you will be very busy.
We’d love it if we could but that really depends on you. If you work your butt off for 9 weeks, we’ll make sure you get an interview. We have relationships with many great companies and startups that are always looking for new talent. We host a hiring day for each cohort to bring the students and businesses together. Some of our mentors are hiring partners, so right from the start you’ll know what they expect and you’ll have 9 weeks to interact with them, rather than an hour or two like traditional job interviews. One of our goals is to place 100% of our graduates in jobs so we are very committed to job placement.
Our classrooms are set up with Apple computers for everyone. However, we still encourage students to bring their own laptops because there are other places in our space where they may want to work. It doesn't matter which operating system your laptop uses, the initial set up is a little different, but all of the functionality is the same.
Ruby on Rails is an agile web development framework that’s great for rapidly building web applications. Rails is one of the most developed web development frameworks; it’s user friendly and relatively easy to pick up as a beginner. It’s also the framework of choice for the majority of our hiring partners.
A web site is static, like a picture or an online brochure. A lawyer or dentist would use a website to promote their business. A web application is interactive. It has a two-way exchange allowing the user to interact with the application. Facebook and Twitter are applications. You can input, retrieve and manipulate data.
Citizens of certain countries and territories need a visa to visit Canada.
A few of the countries where citizens are not required to have a visa are: the United States, Britain, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
If you do not require a passport to enter Canada, your temporary resident status will expire six months from the day you enter Canada unless you were given a visitor record, study or work permit. If you were given a document, the expiry date is marked on it.
20 Duncan Street, Suite 201
Toronto, Ontario M5H 3G6
Canada
