It has just been a few days since we wrapped up Full Stack Web Development 360 class of July, and I have just finished formulating some thoughts after everything. Commenced in early July, the program started online, where students took the online classes before attending the physical classes.

It has then been an eventful 8 weeks – where students were actively learning online and offline, asking questions in the online community and actively practicing programming.

I’d like to take a moment to congratulate every student and drop some takeaways from the experience! Let’s get started.

Anyone Can Learn Web Development

As I walked into the physical class, I quickly noticed the diverse background of every participant – which made the class interesting.

Among the 20 students in the class, we had Jodie, who came from a legal background without any experience in web development. And Jason, a 20-year old who decided to use the free time he had to learn web development, before entering university.

While not everyone was looking to turn web development or coding skills into a job, I found that many of the students have expressed much satisfaction from being able to code and understand web programming by the end. And then it occurred to me that anyone, regardless of age or experience, can learn full stack web development if they had the right mindset.

The most exciting part of web development and the tech industry – is the low cost of entry. If you think about it, all you really need is a laptop and the right mindset to start.

Programs like Full Stack 360 gives participants the much-needed flexibility to learn web development at their own pace. The online videos & content can be accessed anytime and at their own pace. And the physical classes were arranged to run on weekends, where the students were able to put in the time.

Starting With The End In Mind

In the first physical class, we had students introduce themselves and state their goal of learning full stack web development. What drove them to this program? What were they hoping to get out of it?

Some of the answers we got were:

• To become a freelance web developer & generate side income.
• To better understand CMS systems like WordPress & have the ability to make technical changes.
• To become tech-ready and be prepared for changes in the industry.
• To upgrade oneself to being a full stack developer.
• Simply to learn!

There were many reasons why they took up Full Stack 360. But what’s important was that they started with the end in mind. This mindset alone gave them the clarity and vision to follow-through the entire course and act by practicing to write actual code.

There were parts during the course where it got a little confusing for participants who had no prior experience. However, we were glad to see everyone push through their learning barriers to finishing the entire learning program.

Mentorship Is Important & Much Needed

Whether it’s taking a full stack web development course or learning how to lift weights in the gym, everyone needs a mentor or coach.

Why is that the best football player or basketball player – all have a coach, even if they are the very best in the world? That is because a coach can look from different angles and see flaws, easily missed by the student.

Asides the physical class in Full Stack 360, most of the mentoring were done through a private Slack group – where mentors answered questions asked by the students. Through talking to the students, we were glad to discover that the students found the lifetime support membership to be useful, as they are still connected to the mentors and could ask questions even after the course has ended.

LEAD is Like A Family

This may come across as cliche to you and I’m really not that kind of high emotion type of person.

But honestly, even though I didn’t sit through the course, I could feel the connection between the students and mentors. Everyone gelled with each other naturally, even if they only met each other only a few times.

This culture probably came down from LEAD. After all, LEAD began as a group of friends who wanted to impact the lives of individuals in tech. And with this sort of culture, everyone learns better together.

On the last day, participants were awarded a completion certificate which they proudly raised up for everyone to see.

You can see the excitement and the sense of achievement everyone felt at this point. And while the course has ended, learning definitely didn’t stop for them. In fact, this marks the beginning of their journey in web development.

We ended the day by treating everyone to a graduation buffet dinner at Sheraton, where we celebrated over a meal together after 8 long weeks of learning.

It was amazing to see this group of people coming together to learn web development together, regardless of age, race, and backgrounds. This was a special class and from LEAD, we hope you all continue to develop great web applications and take what you have learned to do great things.

Do you have anything you like to add to this post? Let me know through the comment section below.

---

Full Stack Web Development 360 is a course that teaches students complete web development skills, including front-end and back-end web development. Click on the link to find out the next intake.