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United States: Computing boot-camp: Risks and rewards
美国：编程训练营：风险与回报
Should for-profit crash courses get federal funds?
盈利性速成班是否应该得到联邦基金的赞助？
Liberal arts degrees and computer savvy rarely sit comfortably together.
文学学位和精通计算机很难兼得。
But computer-programming is increasingly where the jobs are.
然而，工作越来越需要掌握计算机编程。
This logic guided Adam Enbar and Avi Flombaum in 2012 to found Flatiron, one of many coding boot-camps sprinkled across America.
正出于此，亚当·恩巴尔和阿维弗朗博于2012年创办了Flatiron学校，Flatiron只是遍布全美的编程训练营之一。
The camps offer intensive courses in web development, usually lasting three to six months.
该训练营开设网站开发强化课程，通常为期3到6个月，
They aim to prepare students for software-engineering jobs, while offering career advice and the chance to network: in short, vocational school for the information age.
旨在为那些寻找计算机工程岗位的学生做准备，给他们进行职业规划，并提供接触计算机网络系统的机会：简而言之，编程训练营是为信息时代量身定做的职业学校。
They have emerged to fill a pressing demand for coders.
编程训练营的相继涌出满足了对程序员的迫切需求。
Software-engineering jobs will grow at a rate of 18.8% by 2024, nearly triple the rate of overall job growth, according to the bureau of Labor Statistics.
根据劳工统计局的数据，软件工程岗位的增长率在2024年将达到18.8%，而这一数值几乎是总体岗位增长率的三倍。
So boot-camps are multiplying.
这也是此类训练营迅猛发展的主要原因。
In 2015 more than 16,000 students graduated from them, a 138% increase from the year before, according to Course Report, an organization that tracks the industry.
Course Report是一家追踪报道该产业的组织，其数据表明，2015年有超过16，000名学生从训练营毕业，比往年增长了138%。
They are also big business: publicly traded for-profit education companies are crowding in.
编程训练营中也不乏一些大企业：上市的盈利性教育公司正大量涌入。
Most boot-camp students are between 22 and 35 and have a college degree.
绝大多数训练营的学员年龄介于22和35岁之间，并且拥有大学学位。
Some have developed an interest in programming since graduation, or see it as a route to higher pay.
一些人是毕业后对编程产生了兴趣，而另一些人则视编程为获取高薪的途径。
Sarah Natow, a Harvard graduate, worked in museum fundraising until, dissatisfied with the non-profit sector, she gave up her job and started a course at General Assembly, a boot-camp in New York.
莎拉·诺顿(Sarah Natow)毕业于哈佛，曾经从事博物馆筹款工作，然而这一非营利性部门未能让她感到满足，于是她辞去了工作，开始在纽约的培训学校General Assembly学习。
She felt she needed "some skill set that would give me an entree into some other area", and General Assembly offered a fairly quick fix:
她感到她需要“一整套能够让她从事其他领域工作的技能”，而General Assembly为她建议了一个相当便捷的方法：
three months for $13,500, as opposed to hundreds of thousands of dollars for a two-year masters programme.
参加一个价值13500美元为期三个月的课程，而不是耗费几十万美元进行为期两年的硕士课程学习。
The first job after a boot-camp may not pay that well, explains Natacha Springer, who worked in biotech for ten years, took time off to bring up children, and then attended Flatiron.
从训练营结业后的第一份工作的工资可能不是那么令人满意，娜塔莎·施普林格（Natacha Springer）解释道，娜塔莎（Natacha）曾在生物技术领域工作了10年，随后休假带孩子，之后便加入了Flatiron。
But she saw a 40% salary increase when she started her second job, and now works as a software engineer for a salary in six figures.
然而当她从事第二份工作，她的薪酬涨了40%，而如今，她成为了一名能拿到6位数工资的软件工程师。
Boot-camps claim that over 95% of graduates find jobs as software engineers; starting salaries, they say, average around $65,000.
这些训练营声称，超过95%的学生毕业后以软件工程师为职，并且起薪平均都在6万5千美元左右。
Such claims are seldom independently verified.
然而此类言论很少经过独立查证。
As the camps proliferate and more second-rate schools enter the market, quality may suffer.
训练营的激增以及进入该市场的二流大学的增多，教学质量难以保证。
Critics also argue that no crash course can compare with a computer-science degree.
批评家们也议论说，没有速成班可以与一个计算机学位相提并论。
They contend that three months’ study of algorithms and data structures is barely enough to get an entry-level job.
他们认定，三个月中学习到的算法和数据结构连从事入门级工作都不怎么够。
Until now, worries about quality have mattered only to those who can afford boot-camps or can secure private loans to attend: tuition fees range from $10,000 to $20,000.
直到如今，有关教学质量的担忧仅存在于那些付得起训练营学费以及能获得私人贷款的人身上：训练营的费用从1万美元到2万美元不等。
That is about to change.
但这种情况即将发生改变。
Last year the Department of Education announced a pilot programme to make federal funds available to boot-camps, which are currently unaccredited and whose students are therefore ineligible for federal aid.
去年，教育部公布了一个试点项目，使得联邦基金同样适用于那些当前还未得到认可，其学员也因此没有资格获得联邦补助的编程训练营。
As part of the programme, up to ten accredited colleges will work in partnership with "non-traditional providers", like boot-camps, and the quality of the camps will be assessed by a third party.
作为项目的一部分，多达10所经过认可的大学将与“非传统教学机构”（如一些集中营）进行合作办学，并且这类训练营的教学质量将由第三方评估。
The goal is both to open the boot-camps to students from poorer backgrounds, and to improve oversight of the courses offered.
其目的不进是使得这类训练营面向贫困生，也能更好地监管这些市面上的课程。
Many who follow the education business worry about federal involvement.
许多从事教育事业的人对联邦政府的参与感到担忧。
For-profit education companies have a mixed history in America; they have been known to take federal money while overpromising, offering sub-standard instruction and saddling unsuspecting students with debt.
盈利性教育公司在美国有一段错综复杂的历史，这些公司接受联邦政府的资助，过分夸大却提供不符合标准的教学，并且将债务强加给那些没有戒心的学生的劣迹已经是众所周知。
So far, says Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, boot-camps have not been proved to do much for low-income students without a college degree.
美国国家高等院校协会的巴马克·纳西里安（Barmak Nassirian）声称，至今也没有证据显示，这些训练营为那些未获得大学学位的低收入学生带来了多大的贡献。
Mr Nassirian is right.
纳西里安先生没说错。
The vast majority of today's boot-camp students are sophisticated consumers who have gone through college.
如今参加训练营的学生大多都是念完大学的精明消费者。
They view the courses as an expensive but necessary add-on, and judge their quality by how much private investment they attract.
他们认为这种课程虽然价格高昂，却是不可缺的附加课程，并且他们会根据这类课程所吸引的学生的投资多少来判别其教学质量。
That is how for-profit education companies should work.
而这正是盈利性公司赢利的方式。
To offer these companies the open spigot of federal funding seems too risky, both for taxpayers and for student borrowers.
为这些公司开启联邦资助的“水龙头”，对于纳税人以及贷款学生来说，未免显得过于冒险。
译者：玲玲
