Type Private Campus Urban | Established 2011 | |
Founders Jake Schwartz, Adam Pritzker, Matthew Brimer, and Brad Hargreaves Website | ||
General Assembly is a private education organization founded by CEO Jake Schwartz, Adam Pritzker, Matthew Brimer, and Brad Hargreaves in early 2011. The organization maintains campuses in numerous countries throughout the world and teaches entrepreneurs and business professionals practical technology skills. The organization directs its focus on providing courses in mobile and web development, data science, product management, and other digital-related courses, helping graduates of their programs gain, "...best-in-class instruction and providing access to opportunities in tech."
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History
General Assembly began in early 2011 as a co-working space in Midtown Manhattan founded by Jake Schwartz, Adam Pritzker, Matthew Brimer, and Brad Hargreaves, and evolved into a private school. It built its first campus in the Flatiron District with a grant from the New York City Economic Development Corporation. In 2015 the company raised $70 million in venture capital funding. In 2016 it worked with accounting firms to develop a framework for assessing student outcomes that it will market to other private educational institutions.
Local General Assembly branches have participated in training the homeless. On Women's Equality Day in 2016 the company launched a hashtag campaign, #ilooklikeadeveloper, and scheduled events around the world focusing on women in computing.
Course Offerings
General Assembly focuses on offering short courses, online classes (including overnight courses and free short online courses), and immersive 10- and 12- week 'boot-camp' style courses in computer programming, data science, and project management, with an emphasis on web development and user experience design. Approximately 20% of its courses are offered through companies to their employees.
As of September 2016, General Assembly has 15 campus locations on 4 continents. It plans to expand in Silicon Valley in or near San Jose and possibly in Miami.
General Assembly is not accredited but has been approved by the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education. They have also begun the process to become accredited, working with partner corporations such as GE, PayPal, Elance-oDesk, Adobe, Target, IBM, and many others to review such criteria to measure skills and competency in each program offered.