Hyperion Development

Online IT courses versus computer science degrees

Let’s say you’ve decided to go into a career in IT. Now you need to make an important decision: do you want to do a Computer Science degree or take an IT course online? According to Business Insider, a virtual course (or bootcamp) aims “to take in students with minimal coding knowledge and shoot them back out a few months later as employable software engineers”.

This is the major difference between an online IT course and a CS degree – the time taken to complete the course. A bootcamp is a lot shorter than a degree, which will generally take three to four years. Remember, there is loss of income (or opportunity cost) to consider during all those years of traditional studying.

IT courses to complete for a career in web development

We get asked frequently, “What degree should I study if I want to become a software developer?”

A lot of the evidence points to a BSc/BEng CS degree being the best. The core reason for CS-degrees being more valued is because of how strongly they reinforce modern programming skills. But what if you’ve already qualified, you can’t go back to study full-time, or you don’t have the time and the budget?
HyperionDev offers the first short CS qualifications available both part-time and full-time online. We have packaged all the must-have knowledge about modern programming skills into short IT courses, and we link successful graduates with software development roles across South Africa and abroad.

I don’t have any background or experience in coding, IT, or computer science. Can I still take your IT courses?

Of course you can. Many of our students successfully change careers to programming after taking our courses, even if they were completely new to programming when starting. If your aim is to change careers, our 6-month part-time bootcamps are designed to help you achieve exactly that.

Are HyperionDev IT courses recognised/ accredited?

Our courses have been recognised, awarded and endorsed by leading players in the IT and tech industry. We have developed our content and curriculum in partnership with top-level, industry-relevant international organisations. We created our Android Mobile Development content in partnership with Google, and were selected by Google as its first Authorised Training Partner in Europe, Middle East & Africa.

We have also delivered our advanced Java training together with Oracle and South Africa’s Department of Education. Our Python courses have received multiple awards and recognition from the Python Software Foundation and Facebook; and Internet.org awarded HyperionDev the Innovation Challenge Award Winner in 2016. They have been involved in funding the organisation, which was incubated within the University of Cambridge, and received support from the University of Edinburgh Development Trust. But most importantly, our brand and courses are recognised by employers. An impressive 93% of our graduates get placed in the tech industry within 150 days of completing a course with us.

Do you offer any discounts or specials on your IT courses?

Discounts are available during promotional sales, which we mention on our social media channels and via our e-mails. So be sure to following us, and subscribe to our newsletter. We also run various scholarship opportunities, which can be found on our scholarships page.

Can I get a free trial of one of your courses?

Yes, you can sign up to a free trial of all our bootcamps. Simply register for an account, and explore all the material and tasks offered in the free trial. This allows you to start coding and evaluate whether a specific bootcamp will match your needs. Although you won’t receive our full mentor support experience during your trial IT course, you can explore the course material and you will be given opportunities to trial some first coding tasks.