The world of work is being significantly disrupted. Automation, globalisation and collaborative flexible work arrangements are transforming it at exponential speed.
Work life is evolving to include a ‘portfolio’ of jobs, often at the same time. A large majority of jobs already require significant digital skills, and a set of skills that are transferable across different jobs.
- How do you equip young people to become job creators not just job seekers?
- How do you ensure your child is gaining skills and experience for jobs of the future and not of the past?
- How do you know what they need to learn now that will will actually need to know tomorrow?
More and more is happening to address these questions in the Learn-to-Code sphere and it is not by chance.
Codeclubs, code workshops, code challenges … are all tech skills initiatives giving children the chance not only to explore and develop digital skills that are not readily available at school, but also to engage in learning through experience, immersion and with peers. These conditions are pivotal to the world of work they will be entering soon.
School children in Tauranga now have more opportunities to be better equipped. They can choose to attend one of five Codeclubs, with a sixth one opening soon. Codeclubs run weekly in various locations (see map here), and bring teachers, tech people as volunteers and children in primary and intermediate together through following tutorials to learn code basics with Scratch.
Codeclub coordinator and Omokoroa #1 School teacher Susan McRoberts started one of the first Codeclub in the area last March, after been introduced to the concept by Codeclub founder and Venture Centre guest Michael Trengrove.
“We had 24 kids interested on Week 1 and they still keep coming! We have found the 'tech’ volunteers were right here in our school community!” says Susan, "and we don’t always stick to the project plan as our volunteers can introduce new stuff!"
Alvin Gounder, Avonmore student and Codeclub volunteer finds the experience rewarding and he is enjoying the buzz. “Codeclub makes for a lot of fun" describes Alvin, "I have seen a student start off with a space-invaders-like game on Scratch and through adding effects and features he ended up controlling a bowl of cheetos firing lasers at flying pizzas!"
Learn-to-code principles also revolves around helping students find their own way to be creative. Kids Rewired director and Codebrite facilitator Sandy Bornholt believes in activating young people minds through a ‘Code Gym' where the very young learns to develop strategies to support computational thinking and learn basic coding skills.
“Visual programming environments like Scratch offer a wide scope of learning opportunities’" says Sandy “the thinking developed through experiencing coding and its core concepts are extremely valuable: this is the very thinking we need to prepare for the disruption happening in the world of work: learn-to-code provides the challenges and discovery necessary to develop and improve these otherwise hard to teach thinking skills”.
Codebrite is back this school holiday for three days on 5, 6 and 7 October. This Codebrite series caters for children in school years 4 to 8. It is flexible and offers a range of workshops to suit different ages and stages. It also gives Codeclub members the chance to do more with Scratch than follow tutorials by presenting them with context and problems to solve. Workshops are fee paying and receive the generous support of Powerco to keep them affordable.
Your child can now start working on the skills and experiences they’ll need to take charge of their work life, right here in Tauranga!
Read more about Codebrite and secure your spot here
