National Coding Week: get involved this weekend

This is its third year and we are half way through it. Estimates suggest 3,000 people will have taken part by the end.

Some of the remaining events are:

• Fri 23rd Manchester – Taster coding sessions
• Sat 24th Glasgow – Teach your Parent/Guardian how to Code
• Sat 24th Leeds – Build An Android Game In A Day!
• Sat 24th Carmarthen – Intro into the MicroBit
• Sat 24th North London – Barclays Digital Eagles session
• Sun 25th Manchester – Taster coding sessions
• Sep 27th Inverness – Children invited to have a go at coding for the first time
• Sep 27th Leeds – Taster Coding Sessions at Leeds City College
• Sep 29th Leeds – Taster Coding Sessions at Leeds City College

Events is entirely run by volunteers and are intended to encourage adults to try their hand at writing computer code – even if it is for the first time.

“The EU Commission predicts that by 2020 Europe will have a shortfall of 900,000 IT professionals. And with the UK potentially going it alone post-Brexit we need to grow as much talent as we can at home,” said National Coding Week founder Richard Rolfe.

The volunteers behind this year’s events come from a range of organisations, from start-ups to multinationals, and across the length and breadth of the UK.

These include: MadLab, Dreamr, Yard Digital, Code Up, Women Who Code, Barclays and Generate.

“Their common goal is to highlight that coding is a skill which can open doors to anybody, regardless of their background, education or employment history,” said the Week’s organising team.

Events this year include an introduction to coding for the homeless, inter-generational coding events where older generations are taught by 12 year old students, and sessions run by National Coding Week’s own volunteer Jonathan Channing who has autism and is keen to inspire other people who, like him, may have struggled at school.

“I attended a one week course in November 2014, simply out of curiosity. From the moment I learned the first tag of html I was utterly consumed,” said Channing. “Coding became an outlet for me and has opened doors for me since then. I recently founded my own business [Cobra Coding] and love being my own boss. I see autism as an advantage in my future career  –  seeing the world from a different perspective and thinking differently has advantages. I love having the opportunity to teach coding to others and inspire young people who might struggle in similar ways to me.”

More than 300 events are occurring this week.

“This isn’t a government initiative, nor are we doing it for profit,” said founder Rolf. “National Coding Week was created because, as an industry, we identified that we needed to do something ourselves to address this ever-growing skills gap.”

Sponsors include JT Group.

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