Hundreds enrol on free coding course

Thursday 29 September 2016

200 Islanders have already signed up to an online digital skills course, launched as part of National Coding Week.

The free course, which is available until the end of October, is being run in association with JT, and is designed for anyone who would like to learn how to write computer code.

The third annual National Coding Week (NCW), was organised by Codex and sponsored by JT, and included a programme of events across Jersey and Guernsey ranging from taster coding sessions and Google Analytics training, to a Lego Robot Wars Competition.

There were also specific sessions for primary school children and the unemployed.

NCW is also growing nationally and over 3,500 people were involved this year in the UK and beyond. There were also over 12,000 visits to the website over the week.

NCW organiser Richard Rolfe said: “I would particularly like to thank our sponsor JT, without whom we couldn't have organised over 300 events across the Channel Islands and UK. I am also grateful to partner Barclays for their Digital Eagles-supported events in Jersey and Guernsey and to Jonathan Channing from Cobra Coding, who spent many hours coordinating the events locally and ensuring that local tech businesses were involved including JT, C5 Alliance, Digital Greenhouse, Webreality, The Potting Shed, Switch Digital, Codex, Jersey Library and The Hub.

“National Coding Week has grown rapidly in the past two years and the national and international interest has been overwhelming with some big players in the technology sector getting involved, including Generate, Sky Bet and Cisco. It goes to show that adults as well as children want the opportunity to learn digital skills”.

Tamara O’Brien, Head of Marketing, Brand and Distribution, of sponsor JT said: “NCW continues to raise awareness of the importance of learning digital skills and that can only be a good thing, both for the individuals who participate and the islands’ economies as a whole. An ability to code is already a useful tool and one that is set to become essential in our workforces as technology advances.

“Having built and invested in bringing the Channel Islands among the fastest mobile and broadband networks in the world, JT are keen to promote digital skills wherever we can and NCW is a great partnership initiative for us. We firmly believe that NCW will grow and grow and we’re proud to be associated with it.”