How a Developer Boot Camp Marched Its Way to Millions A hands-on continuing education model for software engineers takes off.

Roshan Choxi was surprised that he learned more about software development during a 2010 summer internship at an early-stage web startup than during the four years he spent at a top-five engineering school.

"Even at a high-caliber engineering program like that, what you learn is so divorced from anything pragmatic or related to the type of skills you need to know in the industry," Choxi says. "I felt like there was a way to do it better."

Teaming up with fellow engineer Dave Paola in 2011, he founded Bloc, a San Francisco-based company that offers online boot camps in web development, mobile development and software design. Led by seasoned developers and designers, Bloc's courses employ a hands-on apprenticeship model in which students work one-on-one with a mentor to build software products.