To say 2020 was a difficult year is an epic understatement. A novel coronavirus spread across the globe and caused devastating shocks across all areas of life. Millions of people got sick, lost jobs, were isolated from friends and family, and adjusted to the “new normal.”

We have been looking back on the year and on what it means for Lambda School and our community of learners, alumni and employers. Today, we are sharing the result of our analysis: the 2020 Outcomes Report. As part of our commitment to data transparency, we are proud to be working with the accounting, audit, and advisory firm Moody, Famiglietti & Andronico, LLP, which performed an examination of our 2020 outcomes data.

Here are the most exciting data points from the 2020 Outcomes Report:

• The graduation rate of all learners was 68% (Unit 2 starting learners)
• The 2020 job placement rate was 74% for job-seeking graduates
• 71% of placed job-seeking graduates found a job within 180 days
• The median annualized salary of placed graduates of all programs was $62,000

In dedication to transparency and accountability, we share our progress toward our goal of empowering people, regardless of their circumstance or background, to begin rewarding careers in technology. I invite you to read the report in its entirety. Here, I’ll share what we see as the three most crucial takeaways.

Lambda School is designed to be adaptable. This trait helped us meet the needs of learners, employers and the wider market in 2020.

Our data suggest that our model’s design, which enables us to be nimble, helped us provide alternative education to learners and qualified graduates to companies looking to hire. We see this trend in several important areas.

• Our always-remote programs enabled learners to continue their training, even when many other students elsewhere had to put their education on hold. This suggests that our model works.
• The graduation rate in 2020 dropped slightly compared to our H2 2019 Outcomes Report, to 68%. We believe the pandemic is largely responsible for this small decrease. Recent surveys show that the pandemic is similarly contributing to decreases in on-time graduation rates at four-year colleges and universities, which are already below 50%. We believe that Lambda School continues to offer a vital and direct alternative route to rewarding careers.

Lambda School is jobs-focused. This design helped our learners launch careers in technology, even during a global pandemic.

To put it mildly, 2020 was not an ideal time to start a new career. In spite of a challenging market, though, Lambda School graduates worked toward and achieved their goals.

• Lambda School graduates found technical jobs (with titles like web developer, data analyst and software engineer) at roughly the same rate they did in 2019. We are incredibly proud of our graduates’ grit, talent and resilience as they started careers in the midst of a U.S. recession and global economic crisis.
• The data suggest that training in skills needed by employers prepares learners to be job-ready when they graduate. Lambda School teaches technical skills such as Java, Python, SQL, data visualization and predictive modeling as well as the professional skills that enable learners to thrive in the workplace, such as collaboration and time management.
• Lambda School Career Services help our learners during their program and after graduation to work toward their career goals and find a just-right job. Career development assignments, career coaching, mentoring and more strengthen learners’ confidence and qualifications. As a part of Lambda School, they practice interviewing, refine their resumés, expand their network and learn how to negotiate salaries.

 Lambda School was founded to remove obstacles to education, rewarding work and financial mobility. In 2020, though, some learners took longer to find jobs.

• It was undoubtedly difficult to find a job in 2020. More qualified candidates competed for fewer job openings as employers adjusted to a global economic slowdown, remote work and the impacts of social distancing. It should come as no surprise, then, that some Lambda School graduates needed more time to find a job.
• We invest in our learners and so take on some of the financial risk of their education. Our graduates who took longer to find a job did not have to pay Lambda School until they secured a position making at least an annualized $50,000 a year (or the monthly equivalent), according to the terms of their Income Share Agreement (ISA).

I am eager to share even more details about the learning and employment outcomes of Lambda School learners. For more information, read the complete 2020 Outcomes Report. You may also be interested in our 2021 Diversity Report.