How long ago did you show your diploma when applying for a job? Most likely a very long time ago. In today's fast-changing world, almost no one is interested in having a formal higher education. Employers need employees with skills that can help solve specific business problems. Additional non-academic education - what we used to call “courses” - online and offline training in certain professions perfectly copes with this request. This format of education takes less time: the world is changing quickly, and accordingly, you need to learn at the same pace. We conducted a survey among JavaRush users, in which we asked about their experience of additional training: why they decided to study, what format they chose, and how much they were willing to spend on new knowledge.
Portrait of a student
Who chooses additional education at JavaRush? Residents of Russia are most interested in learning the Java language (64% of respondents), followed by Ukraine (almost 17%), followed by Belarus (9.7%) and Kazakhstan (1.8%). They choose additional education at JavaRush in other countries of the world - in Israel, Poland, Uzbekistan, the USA, Moldova, Latvia (7.8% in total). The Java language is taught primarily by men (85.7%) and a small proportion of women (14.3%). Perhaps this is due to the large number of stereotypes that programming is easier for men. The largest age category of students is people 31-37 years old (almost 40% of respondents). In second place are people 23-30 years old (27.6%). In third place are people 38-45 years old (19%). These users are most likely switchers - those who have mastered some profession, but decided to retrain as an IT specialist, because about 50% of students answered that they do not work in the IT field. 7.4% of JavaRush students are 18-22 years old (most likely university students). And another 6.5% of people learning Java have already reached the age of 46 years. The educational background of the course students is also interesting. Almost 60% of those studying Java have a higher education, but a non-IT higher education. 17.5% have a higher IT-related education (for example, a programming course at a higher state), but they still came to study at JavaRush. Among the students of the course, there are people with secondary specialized technical (almost 10%) and secondary specialized humanities education (7%), as well as those who started learning programming, but did not finish at the time (6%).
Motivation and training format
Almost 74% of people who study at JavaRush came to learn and eventually find a new job. This figure correlates with the large number of switchers that we wrote about above. Students of the course are also interested in a promotion at their current job (14.7% of respondents), because programming skills make a specialist more valuable. Another 3.7% came to learn Java in order to open their own business, and 7.8% of people were undecided why they needed programming. According to our survey, online courses have become the leader among training formats (they are preferred by 52.5% of users). Almost 19% of respondents choose independent training, and almost the same number of people prefer individual lessons with a mentor. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, 10.6% of people still choose offline courses.
Expenses for additional training
To talk about spending, you must first understand how much course students earn, and everyone earns differently. More than a quarter (27%) of users earn about $900-1000 per month. Almost a quarter (24%) receive $1,200-$2,000 a month. Another 13.5% earn $500 per month. However, 10.8% of respondents receive about 3 thousand dollars a month. Now let's move on to spending on training. About half of the surveyed users (47.2%) are willing to spend at least $100 a month on it. 28% of students are ready to allocate $50 monthly for training, and 14.8% are ready to allocate $200. When it comes to actual student spending, the numbers are slightly different, but not by much. 33.8% of users spend $100 a month on training, 17.7% of respondents answered that they pay $50 monthly for training, another 17.7% - $200. 16% spent $30 on training recently. These are the results of a survey on additional training. What do you think: how much is it worth investing in education? We are waiting for your comments.
We conducted a survey among JavaRush users, in which we asked about their experience of additional training: why they decided to study, what format they chose, and how much they were willing to spend on new knowledge.
The Java language is taught primarily by men (85.7%) and a small proportion of women (14.3%). Perhaps this is due to the large number of stereotypes that programming is easier for men. The largest age category of students is people 31-37 years old (almost 40% of respondents). In second place are people 23-30 years old (27.6%). In third place are people 38-45 years old (19%). These users are most likely switchers - those who have mastered some profession, but decided to retrain as an IT specialist, because about 50% of students answered that they do not work in the IT field. 
7.4% of JavaRush students are 18-22 years old (most likely university students). And another 6.5% of people learning Java have already reached the age of 46 years. The educational background of the course students is also interesting. Almost 60% of those studying Java have a higher education, but a non-IT higher education. 17.5% have a higher IT-related education (for example, a programming course at a higher state), but they still came to study at JavaRush. Among the students of the course, there are people with secondary specialized technical (almost 10%) and secondary specialized humanities education (7%), as well as those who started learning programming, but did not finish at the time (6%).
According to our survey, online courses have become the leader among training formats (they are preferred by 52.5% of users). Almost 19% of respondents choose independent training, and almost the same number of people prefer individual lessons with a mentor. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, 10.6% of people still choose offline courses.
When it comes to actual student spending, the numbers are slightly different, but not by much. 33.8% of users spend $100 a month on training, 17.7% of respondents answered that they pay $50 monthly for training, another 17.7% - $200. 16% spent $30 on training recently. 
These are the results of a survey on additional training. What do you think: how much is it worth investing in education? We are waiting for your comments.
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