Since founding General Assembly in 2011, I’ve heard some incredible stories from our students and graduates. One of my favorites is about Jerome Hardaway. Jerome came to GA after five years in the United States Air Force. He dreamed of tackling persistent diversity gaps in the technology sector by breaking down barriers for other veterans and people of color.
In 2014, with the help of General Assembly’s Opportunity Fund scholarship, Jerome began one of our full-time Web Development Immersive courses. After graduation, he had the opportunity to pitch President Obama at the first-ever White House Demo Day and has launched a nonprofit in Nashville, Vets Who Code, which helps veterans navigate the transition to civilian life through technology skills training.
Exceptional stories like Jerome’s embody GA’s mission of “empowering people to pursue the work they love.” It’s a mission that motivates our instructional designers, faculty, mentors, and career coaches. It also inspired the development of an open source reporting framework which defined GA’s approach to measuring student outcomes and now, our first report with verified student outcomes metrics.
We know that anecdotes don’t always equate to statistical outcomes, and that students enroll in our programs for different reasons. We believe that transparency in reporting student outcomes is the best way to empower students whose goals, life circumstances, and career paths differ widely. We hope that rigorous measurement, paired with a relentless focus on outcomes, can foster a culture of accountability without stifling innovation. That’s why we asked KPMG LLP to review the graduation and placement rates included in the tables on page 20 of this student outcomes report.
While this report represents the culmination of a 12-month commitment from our team, it is just the first step in a process that we hope can inform a paradigm shift in how we think about measuring and reporting on outcomes across the education-to-employment landscape.