The first coding boot camp opened its doors in San Francisco in 2012, in order to meet the demand for software developers in Silicon Valley. Since then, hundreds of similar schools have opened in dozens of cities around the world. A student will typically pay $10,000 or more for twelve weeks of training, after which they will hope to find work as a junior software developer. In job market terms, this may seem like a better deal than anything offered by universities.Like some of the better university courses - particularly in vocational disciplines like engineering and architecture - many boot camps advocate peer-based methods, such as pair programming and group projects. However, unlike universities, these boot camps have not had years to refine their curricula and many have struggled to keep up with the rapidly changing demands of the job market. Stories abound of students themselves re-writing outdated course materials and there is a well-established practice of hiring graduates as teachers.There is nothing wrong with any of these practices; in fact, there is a rich tradition of self-organised learning, including, in recent years, the work of. But then the question arises: what exactly are the students paying for?At Founders & Coders we embrace the peer-led approach to learning. We too want our students to help us re-write the curriculum every time we run a course and we encourage our students to act as mentors after they graduate. But we take it a step further. At Founders & Coders, we have dispensed with paid teaching staff altogether. Instead, we rely on unpaid mentors, alumni, recent graduates and employers to deliver the curriculum. Above all, we rely on the students themselves, who we treat not as customers, but as colleagues and members of our community.Fundamentally, we do not charge our students any fees. As it turns out, this is not a bad business model and after only a few months of operation, we are now breaking even. Our assets are not our curriculum (we are open sourcing it), or our methods (we encourage people to copy them), or our staff (we don't have any), but above all they are the bonds of trust we are building between our students, our alumni and a growing number of employers and partners. In the 21st Century, as in centuries past, trust is everything. If you can create trust, the business will follow. Credit does not just accumulate in bank accounts. Debts do not always have to be given a monetary value and recorded in a ledger.Contrary to what I was told when I first started out on this venture, people are capable of valuing a service even if they are not charged for it. Sustaining a school not on student fees, but with an income based largely on recruitment and referral fees turns out to be viable. In fact, in the modern era of ubiquitous information, rapidly accumulating knowledge and an ever-changing job market, it may become the only viable model for vocational training and life-long learning. First, it needs to establish itself as a real possibility in the public consciousness.The benefits do not just accrue to our students, but to the wider community too. The network effects of having an establishment like ours producing dozens of new software developers every year, surrounded by an ever-growing community of alumni, makes us an appealing partner for any property owner wanting to create value in their property portfolio or for any local authority looking to reinvigorate their local economy.Educational entrepreneurs like me are in the business, not of teaching, but of creating environments in which people can learn. This, as with any business, depends on attracting good people and giving them the space to flourish.21 August 2015