"School without teachers" has started --- What is the actual situation of the programmer training school "42USA" actively adopted by Facebook and Tesla? (Part 1) | BRIDGE Technology & Startup Information

The need for programming education is increasing.

From 2020, programming education will be compulsory in elementary schools, which can be said to be a part of responding to the needs of programming education that has raised the country.

As described in the survey report on IT human resources released by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in 2016, the shortage of information security human resources is pointed out as the background of the compulsory requirement. In fiscal 2016, the shortage of information security personnel was about 130,000, but it is expected that the shortage will increase to just under 200,000 in 2020.

However, the current situation is that there are still issues in terms of human resource development to train programming teachers. In 2003, "information department" became compulsory in high school, but it is said that 20% of the national average has a teacher in charge of information department as a full-time teacher. In Tokyo, the ratio of full-time faculty members in the information department to the total number of homeroom teachers is about 60%, but in Iwate, it is only 2-3% in Gunma, and there are large variations depending on the prefecture.

While the number of information teachers working in high school is barely high, the shortage of human resources will be further reduced in elementary school. According to an NHK survey, as a result of inquiring about the shortage of human resources in elementary and junior high schools to 67 boards of education nationwide, 32 committees have a shortage of at least 717 human resources for the capacity of teachers.

Looking at the figures for the number of teachers in 2007, a certain number of elementary school teachers reached the age of 60 after peaking in 2017, and the number of retirees increased, and the number of teachers tends to slump after 2018. I understand.

In this way, even if the need for programming education is shouted out loud, the shortage of human resources for programming teachers will be a major barrier in terms of the current state of operation, where there is already a shortage of human resources to teach regular courses. Is visible.

On the other hand, looking at the United States, there is a four-year educational institution that offers a solution to the shortage of human resources in programming education. Therefore, I would like to introduce "42USA", which specializes in programming education.

The case of "42USA" may have the potential to be a good example to meet the needs of programming human resources not only in Japan but also in other countries around the world. In this article, the author will go directly to "42USA" in the past and dig up the contents based on the records of the tour visit.

From San Francisco, California, take a train and bus to the southeast for about two hours, and you will find the "42USA" campus in a quiet countryside area. To stay away from the hustle and bustle of the city and focus on studying, it creates an atmosphere similar to a rural-based North American liberal arts university.

It takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes to drive to San Francisco and about 1 hour to the Silicon Valley area where Apple, Facebook and Google campuses are located, making it an ideal location for programming students.

"42USA" was originally established in 2016 as a separate school from our school in France. A next-generation educational institution specializing in programming education with no tuition fees, founded in Paris, France. Three years after the establishment of the Paris school, graduates have found employment in famous companies such as "Tesla", "IBM" and "Amazon", and it has attracted attention as an up-and-coming programming education institution.

I hear that "42USA" has a high need for recruiting human resources not only from the above three companies but also from major tech companies "Facebook", "Twitter" and "Snap" based mainly in Silicon Valley.

In "42USA", which just started its educational program in 2016, 10,000 applications were received from all over the world in the first class, 650 people advanced to temporary enrollment, and 270 people reached full enrollment. rice field. In the second class in the second half of 2016, 860 students have been provisionally enrolled.

Temporary enrollment students who pass the online test will actually spend a certain period of time on campus to decide whether or not they will be able to complete a programming project with their peers. Considering that 800 students will stay in the temporary enrollment every semester, I think that the number of students staying on campus is always around 1,000.

"42USA" is a campus like a small office building that owns a two-story building, and 1,024 PCs are lined up on the second floor. When I visited, the first floor was rented to another company, but the rental contract was canceled and it was planned to install 1,024 new PCs and become a program school equipped with a total of 2,048 computers (visit). All the computers that were sometimes placed were iMacs).

By the way, as of May 2017, at Meiji University, which is the leading large-scale university in Japan, the total number of PCs installed in media classrooms and media study rooms on four campuses is about 2,600, so "42USA". You can see how big the capital investment is.

The advantage of "42USA" is not only the capital investment but also the mechanism to raise a little less than 1,000 students.

Students receive a thorough programming education for four years, but they do not teach in the classroom like Japanese universities do. In other words, there are no teachers, and there are only a few staff members who support students in the form of tutors.

The total number of staff is eight. Two of them work as full-time employees in the cafeteria, so there are actually six students in charge of just under 1,000 (the number at the time of the visit). At this point, you may be wondering how to run the school. In the second part, we will unravel the educational system that supports "42USA" and the vision that the school is aiming for.