Planning to make a career change into tech, upskill for a promotion, or even reboot after a resignation? CareerFoundry and Springboard are both online learning program providers aimed at helping you achieve such goals.
But deciding which of the two is best for you will come down to your budget, goals, and learning style.
In this CareerFoundry vs Springboard article, we’ll look at what the platforms have in common and unpack how they differ.
We’ll explore the courses they offer, how they make learning easier for you, what you can expect to pay, and how long it will take you to complete a course.
1. CareerFoundry vs Springboard
On the surface, CareerFoundry and Springboard have quite a few similarities.
Both offer job guarantees, structure their programs around building real-world portfolios learners can use to enter the job market, and provide excellent learner support.
They both come highly rated, boast exceptional learner outcomes, and provide free courses.
However, the ways in which they differ are also significant.
Springboard offers more courses, which are shorter on average, and scholarships. But CareerFoundry is more affordable and provides a dual mentorship approach that improves student engagement and success.
Let’s start with the courses on offer.
Courses
If you’re interested in data science, software engineering, cybersecurity, or tech sales, Springboard is a solid choice. If you’re moving into digital marketing, web development, or product management, CareerFoundry is clearly the way to go.
But, if you’re interested in data analytics, UI design, or UX design, the decision of which school is best becomes murkier; both platforms offer excellent courses in these three areas.
The curriculums of all these courses are rooted in similar approaches and will set you up well for a move into UI design, UX design, and data analytics.
So while a Springboard vs CareerFoundry comparison based on what each course covers is subjective and not that helpful for you, but three things stick out in how CareerFoundry approaches its courses that increase your odds of success as a student.
- CareerFoundry offers free introductory courses. These five-day free courses will help you decide whether or not data analytics or UX design really is the right choice for you. Springboard also has free learning resources, but they’re focused on certain aspects from different disciplines rather than offering you a view into their courses.
- Springboard offers excellent student support, but CareerFoundry’s dual mentorship approach is a notch above. Not only will you have a tutor, career specialist, and student advisor, but a mentor expert too, who is tasked with providing you with feedback on portfolio pieces.
- To ready you for a role in the industry, CareerFoundry tacks on a free Job Preparation course at the end of every course they provide.
Either way, both have a lot on offer. These are world-renowned courses designed by well-respected experts, but the chance to have a glimpse into a course before signing up, access to more learner support, and free training geared towards landing a job goes a long way.
Pricing
While their courses are very close in value, they differ greatly in price. Your budget, what you expect to earn in a year’s time, and your views on debt will likely factor into your thinking when deciding where to put your money.
While Springboard offers a lot more financial support in the form of scholarships, discounts, and payment arrangements, CareerFoundry is more affordable.
If you pay upfront for your data analytics, UI design, or UX design course, you can expect to pay between $6,210–$7,110 at CareerFoundry. You’ll pay between $7,900–$11,900 at Springboard.
If you pay monthly, you’re looking at a CareerFoundry price tag of $6,900–$7,900 and a Springboard one of $9,540–$16,200.
And certainly, neither of these arrangements may work for you, but there are further considerations.
Springboard provides access to more scholarships, which have been designed to improve diversity in the tech industry, empower women, and even help those who are picking themselves up after a retrenchment. You could access half or even full tuition, and there are discounts of up to 37% on some courses. Springboard also has two more payment options than CareerFoundry.
Like CareerFoundry, you can pay upfront or in monthly installments. Unlike CareerFoundry, Springboard learners can defer payment until they land a job or they can finance their studies through Springboard. But these two options make Springboard courses far less affordable than CareerFoundry when you consider interest.
A significant additional factor: CareerFoundry also offers a full refund if you decide it’s not for you within the first 14 days.
Job guarantee
A breakdown of how CareerFoundry graduates find their jobs
When you’re standing on the doorstep of a big change, some sign of certainty is always welcome.
A job guarantee is just such a sign!
CareerFoundry and Springboard both give big names for where some of their learners end up finding work—Google, LinkedIn, Amazon, Meta, Shopify, and more. They also state salary increases of upwards of $15,000.
Both online providers are confident enough in their courses that they offer full refunds to graduates who do not land a new job within six months of completing a course.
The only—but major—difference between CareerFoundry’s job guarantee and Springboard’s is in the fine print.
To be eligible for Springboard’s job guarantee, you have to fulfill certain criteria. CareerFoundry’s criteria are less demanding.
Springboard asks that you hold a Bachelor’s degree and two years of work experience, among other things similar to CareerFoundry, but CareerFoundry asks only that you have a diploma, are willing to work remotely or relocate, and have completed their free Job Preparation course.
Duration
When up against the clock, the urge to find the quickest route somewhere, such as to a new job, may be stronger than the urge to take the slow and steady approach.
If you’re feeling the crunch and you don’t have that much time to study before making a career change, then knowing how long it will take you to complete a course will be a major deciding factor.
In terms of duration, Springboard’s courses take less time to complete. On average, a part-time learner at Springboard can expect to spend between six and nine months on a course.
The longest course is a mixture between UI and UX design, which takes nine months, part-time. The shortest course, tech sales, is three months long, part-time.
A full-time learner at Springboard is looking at no more than a couple of months for any of the courses.
CareerFoundry courses, however, take the part-time learner between six and ten months and the full-time learner between four and six months. Its shortest track, Product Management, is three months, full-time.
Whether the duration of a course says anything about its value is fairly subjective to each individual’s context, so we’ll leave it up to you to decide which is better for you.
Community
As we all know by now, working online can become lonely, as the lockdowns during the pandemic and the shift to remote work have shown. The same can be true for learning online!
This won’t matter to everyone. Some of us need very little interaction with others, but for the majority interacting with others helps us to stay motivated, feel connected, and belong.
If you need these things, then you’ll be interested to know how Springboard or CareerFoundry provides a sense of community.
Both bootcamps make it possible for learners to interact with others.
Springboard hosts weekly meetings online for students and mentors and provides an online community for learners to join and interact. The bootcamp provides online classes, seven annual live events, and busy social media channels.
CareerFoundry has a buzzing Slack community, hosts dozens of popular online events a year, and has vibrant social media channels and communities, which provide 24/7 access.
2. Which should I choose?
So, CareerFoundry vs Springboard, which is for me? It’s a difficult question to answer because it depends on so much that is unique to you: your learning style, budget, available time, and career path.
This being a CareerFoundry vs Springboard comparison article, however, we’ll try and summarize what we’ve learned about the two.
Springboard and CareerFoundry have been around since 2013, so both companies have proven themselves in terms of the value their products bring to the tech, e-learning space.
Springboard has more graduates under its belt, but CareerFoundry has a larger international footprint. And both bootcamps celebrate their graduates landing jobs at some of the biggest names in tech today.
The courses on offer are extremely high quality and worth every penny, the student support you’ll get from either institution is excellent, and if you harness all that is on offer to you, a dream job will come your way before you know it.
But, when all is said and done, there are a few things CareerFoundry does that make more sense for most people.
Its courses are longer, more robust, and more affordable. Learners have access to more supportive staff and some tuition reductions. Graduate success is made more likely by free 5-day courses and job prep courses. CareerFoundry’s job guarantee has fewer requirements for eligibility, and if you’re unhappy at the outset, you can get a full refund within 14 days.
For another perspective, a CareerFoundry graduate offers her review of the UX design course in this video:
3. Key takeaways
Both CareerFoundry and Springboard provide what you need to start a new career in tech. They have excellent track records when it comes to graduate success rates, and that is because of their expert curricula, learner support staff, and project-based models, which ensure you have a killer portfolio in hand to unlock just about any door in the job market.
The one you go with for your career change really does depend on who you are at this point in your path. It depends on what you can afford, how you study and apply new information, what keeps you motivated and on track, and where you want to end up.
If you’re interested in the differences between CareerFoundry vs Springboard, you might also be interested in:
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Which Tech Career Path Is Right For Me? [2024 Guide]