Terry Kim and Jacob Hess were both ex-IT instructors in the Air Force. They decided to quit their high-paying corporate jobs and start a company that specializes in IT training called NexGenT (short form for Next Generation Training). Why? They were tired of seeing people get ripped-off by the system. They were motivated by rising education costs, current student debt crisis, and inability of the educational system properly prepare students for real life. They set out on a mission of empowering people of all ages to break the chains of educational obsolescence.
They were driven and experienced and attracted the attention of Thomas Korte and Carine Magescas, founders of Angel Pad, the most prestigious startup accelerator in the United States. Terry and Jacob initially wanted to offer their training online as they were just starting the program. Thomas and Carine pushed them to include in-person training into their educational program. They knew the importance of in-person learning after years of working alongside extraordinary entrepreneurs and they believed it was crucial to creating a memorable experience.
NexGenT was founded on a belief that education is available to all, that it can be applied to real-world problems solving, that it cannot leave people with degrees that don’t prepare them for the workforce, and should prepare them to be field-ready, just like military training. It is not an easy task. Even for two ex-military men with tons of experience in the real world, it is not an easy task.
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Despite all the passion, motivation, and drive, and the unconditional guidance of extraordinary people such as Thomas and Carine – there were many things to be done before a system can honor that statement. They knew from their experiences as instructors in the military, and in corporate IT, exactly how to teach it to make a person ready for the workforce. They graduated over one hundred engineers from the Air Force during their time there. Many of them went on to establish network communications for the U.S. military around the world. It was a challenge to fit everything together in a cost-effective and accelerated training program.
They initially intended to adapt the Air Force teaching system to the accelerated, in-person learning style many coding bootcamps use. However, even though their previous teaching system produced the best engineers, coding bootcamps claim that most of their t
