Short course

Skills Bootcamp in Front-End Web Development & UX

Learn modern web applications, user experience (UX) design, and other critical front-end skills during this part-time, 16-week online programme. Front-end web development knowledge is just the start: You’ll also get access to robust career resources and job placement services that will prepare you to move forward

Start date
20 June 2023
Duration
16 weeks, part-time
Time commitment
11 hours per week in the classroom and a further 20 hours minimum per week studying and completing assignments.
Mode
Online
Cost
Free to study
Level
Skills Bootcamp
Credit
Non-credit
Assessment
Portfolio

Endorsed by

Whether we’re planning trips, applying for jobs, or buying groceries, our lives are increasingly shaped by digital experiences. Those digital experiences are shaped by web development professionals. The Skills Bootcamp in Front-End Web Development & UX will equip you with the hard and soft skills you need to help companies, communities,and individuals navigate this changing landscape, and position you for a rewarding career as a front-end web developer.

Over just 16 weeks, you will become familiar with application programming interfaces (APIs), user experience design, and modern web applications (including HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, React.js, and Node). Our market-informed curriculum also features a series of hands-on activities that will give you experience with industry-standard programming practices including agile development, version control and technical project management and popular technologies such as Git, Github, and Netlify.

This programme is offered through the University of Birmingham in partnership with edX.

Is the programme right for you?

This course is ideal for those seeking placement or advancement within technical roles, such as junior web developer, front-end designer, or a technical project manager position. It could be a smart career move if:

  • You want to switch careers and find new challenges and opportunities in an in-demand industry.
  • You plan to move into a more technical position but need to bridge the gap between your current role and the next step up.
  • You seek more flexibility in your career, such as working remotely, making your own hours or striking out on your own as a freelancer.
  • You hope to launch your own business and need new skills to take the leap.

  • You recently graduated and need hands-on experience to enter a competitive and in-demand field.

What you will learn

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • Apply fundamental knowledge of web development with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
  • Create visually-compelling page layouts using UX design principles.
  • Maintain code versioning and work across distributed teams using Git and GitHub.
  • Manipulate page information and create interactivity using jQuery and React.js.
  • Retrieve data from servers using RESTful-compliant network requests.
  • Master foundations of object-oriented and functional programming paradigms, and organise code.
  • Build modern web applications with industry-standard frameworks like node and React.
  • Deploy web-based applications using Netlify.
  • Prepare a portfolio of front-end development work.

In order to be eligible for the Skills Bootcamp in Front-End Web Development & UX:

  • You must be over 19 years of age.
  • You must have the right to work in the UK.
  • You must live in the West Midlands.
  • You must have passed the admissions interview and skills test.
  • You must have a passion for technology and commitment to a career in the tech industry.
  • You must not have attended/plan to attend another Skills Bootcamp in this funding year.

Over the course of 16 weeks, you’ll attend informative lectures and take part in a variety of individual and team exercises, working independently and in groups, in the virtual classroom and at home.

Module 1: HTML, CSS, Git

Practice command line fundamentals using Git — the world’s most popular version control system — and build a solid foundation in front-end development.

Module 2: Working with CSS

Study responsive layout-building provided by CSS technologies; wireframing and modern CSS syntax; and build a responsive web portfolio site using GitHub Pages.

Module 3: UX & Advanced CSS

Leverage frameworks and layouts so as to quickly and seamlessly structure and position content on a page.

Module 4: JavaScript Fundamentals

Learn JavaScript programming principles, including language syntax, conditional statements, arrays, and looping.

Module 5: Intermediate JavaScript

Expand your knowledge of JavaScript, and start working with objects and functions in order to organise code effectively.

Module 6: Working with Web APIs

Explore modern web browser features, including cookies, localdb, and DOM manipulation.

Module 7: Third-Party APIs

Review ways to manipulate the DOM with JavaScript, while exploring the jQuery library and other frameworks as alternative methods to basic JavaScript functions.

Module 8: Server APIs

Learn how to send, receive, and manipulate data from external sources using  modern web-based protocols.

Module 9 & 10: API Application

In your first of two summative projects, you will collaborate in groups to write an API-powered web application that pulls data from multiple sources in a creative way.

Module 11: Working with ES6 and Node

Learn advanced JS keywords and operators used in ES6, as well as Node.js, an open-source environment that executes JS outside of a browser.

Module 12: Object-Oriented Programming

Deepen your understanding of JavaScript by learning the principles in object-oriented programming, and start exploring test-driven development (TDD).

Module 13: Modern Development with React

Decompose complex web pages into smaller, interactive components that re-render with high frequency, and recreate your portfolio site using React to improve real-time functionality.

Module 14: React State and Deployment

Review and employ test- and  behavior-driven development methodologies, which are critical to building stable and secure front-end systems.

Module 15 & 16: Final project

In your second summative project, you’ll apply your course learnings to build and deploy a client-side single-page application.

You will receive:

A University of Birmingham Certificate

Your Skills Bootcamp certificate will showcase your accomplishments and specialised skills to future employers, helping to boost your career.

Career services

Our career services include career content and practice sessions, online career events with industry professionals, soft skills training and one-on-one career coaching that will prepare you for post-graduation technical roles.

Project Demo Day

Our Project Demo Day is a quarterly networking event where you’ll be invited to present your final project to local professionals.

Portfolio

Our curriculum will help you build a robust portfolio of projects which you can share with employers to demonstrate your in-depth knowledge of user interface design.

Employability

Upon completion of the Skills Bootcamp you will be qualified to pursue a range of professional roles such as:

  • Front-end web developer
  • Technical project manager             
  • QA and test engineer
  • Application developer
  • Web developer

Culture and collections

Schools, institutes and departments

Services and facilities