I have a hard time hiring Rails developers myself. After reading about Dev Bootcamp (3 month intensive training in Rails) on TechCrunch (http://tinyurl.com/c9kcqbc), I think it could be replicated in my home country (Vietnam). There are a lot of experienced PHP and .NET programmers there, but Rails is rare. I think 3 months should be enough to train them to be ready to work as junior programmers for startups in the U.S.<p>I want to focus on training on demand, and don't want to build a staffing or contractor company. The main challenge is that students can't afford to pay 4-5K up-front for the training.<p>My business model is Kickstarter for training on demand: employers pay to get their potential employees trained.<p>1. To prepare for a class of 20 students, we will get a list of 40-50 strong candidates (masters in CS or bachelors with a few years of working experience). Potential employers (US startups) interview them and select who they want to sponsor.<p>2. Employers then pay 5-6K for each sponsored candidate to get them trained by us, with a promise to hire them if they survive the bootcamp.<p>3. Students then participate in 12 week intensive training (40 hours/week). Employers will check with their potential hires weekly, give feedback on skills to be improved, and a timeline for improvement. Students fail to improve, they will be kicked out of the program. Employers can get their partial money back.<p>4. At the end of the program, employers can decide to hire their sponsored students or not. If for some reason, sponsored students can't work for their sponsors, the sponsors will get their money back.<p>Employers can hire sponsored students as remote contractors or employees ($1,500-$2500/month is a very decent salary for experienced programmers there), or sponsor them to the US.<p>I would love to hear feedback from HN: what "configuration" of programmers do you want to have? What would be reasonable price range for the training cost, acceptable salary after graduation, financing options? What do you want to see from the trainers and trainees? And ultimately, is it a viable and profitable idea?<p>Thank you.