EU Code Week 2015

• November 5, 2015
• admin

Coding is becoming a key competence which will have to be acquired by all young students and increasingly by workers in a wide range of industries and professions. Coding is what makes it possible for us to create computer software, apps and websites. Your browser, your OS, the apps on your phone, Facebook, and various other social media platforms are all made with code. In its simplest form coding will allow anyone to create a website, blog or even build a simple phone app. Above all however coding enables us to understand more about the technology which is constantly reshaping our world. Today we live in a world that has been affected by rapid advances in technology. The way we work, communication shop and think has changed dramatically. Learning to code helps us make sense of how things work, explore ideas and make things for both work and play. Basic coding skills will also be needed for many jobs in the near future. 90% of professional occupations nowadays require some ICT competence. The demand for ICT workers is growing annually by 3% and the number of graduates from computer science is not keeping pace. As a result many ICT vacancies cannot be filled. If this issue is not seen to both at a European and national level then we may be facing a shortage of up to 825,000 ICT professionals by 2020.

The EU Code Week was launched in 2013 by the Young Advisors for the Digital Agenda. The European Commission supports EU Code Week as part of its strategy for Digital Single Market. EU Code Week is backed by coding movements such as CoderDojo and RailsGirls. Many partners of the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs organise events during EU Code Week. In 2014 150,000 people participated in 4,200 coding events in 36 countries in Europe and beyond.

“Digital skills are essential for a true Digital Single Market and help us understand how our increasingly connected world is built. Coding is not just about computer programming, it’s also about improving problem solving, communication, collaboration and creativity which are needed for the jobs of today and the future.”Andrus Ansip, Digital Single Market Vice-President.

The third edition of EU Code Week took place between the 10 and 18 October 2015. Celebrating how to create with code during Code Week has spread world-wide this year. 48 countries participated in the Code Week. Apart from the 28 EU Member States programming events were held in Albania, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Egypt, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Korea, Kosovo, Moldova, Morocco, Norway, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, Tunisia, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, and the US. Millions of children, young adults, adults, parents, teachers, entrepreneurs and policy makers came together in events and classrooms to learn to create with code.

In Malta, the eSkills Malta Foundation, in collaboration with MCAST, organised a series of short courses on various subjects such as how to develop your first mobile app, how to build a site or blog, how to design a logical network, and also on how to use Python and C#. These eight sessions were open for everyone (with basic computer skills) and were free of charge. The sessions were well attended and the participants were presented with a certificate of attendance.