National Coding Week returns for 2017 to bring back the popular week-long series of events, run entirely by volunteers. The initiative encourages adults to try their hand at writing computer code, or to just find out more about coding, often for the first time. It will run across the UK from 18th-24th September.
Events will be held throughout the week in major cities including London, Manchester, Glasgow and Bel-fast, as well as more remote locations including Jersey and Guernsey. Organisers are calling on Gov-ernment and the UK tech community to back the campaign once again and show their support via #Na-tionalCodingWeek.
This year, organisers are encouraging businesses and individuals to mark Thursday 21st September in their diaries to take part in a national coding lesson, which people can log-on to and participate in wher-ever they are. Signing up to the free en masse lesson is easy to do. Those wanting to take part in the 45 minute session should visit codingweek.org just before noon on Thursday. Certificates will be sent out to all who take part.
Events taking place up and down the UK, include:
• Northcoders, learn to code taster session – Manchester
18th September @ 6.30pm
• Grab a Grown-Up for Code Club – Shetland
19th September from 4.45pm @ Shetland Library
• Build a Game in 3 Hours – London
19th September @ 6pm
• Fun with HTML coding challenge – Uxbridge
21st September @ 9am
• Game design workshop – Jersey
18th September @ 15.30
• Introduction to Machine Learning with WWC – Belfast
21st September @ 6pm
• Parents Lunchtime Cake and Code with Barclays – Guernsey
19th September @ 12.30 and 7.30pm
• How to hack a handbag and 3D print a hat – Reading
20th September @ 12pm
• CodeUp Keele Extra: Javascript coding a game for beginners – Keele
18th September
• FutureLearn introduction to coding – London
18th September @ 6pm
• Lunchtime Coding Drop-in – Glasgow
22nd September @ 12.30pm
Head of UK events for National Coding Week, Jonathan Channing said: “We’re delighted to be bringing National Coding Week back for its fourth year! Our ambition is to reach more people than ever before in 2017.
“With such a mix of events happening up and down the country we’re confident that that we’ll see hun-dreds of people giving coding a go. A big thank you goes to the sponsors and the brilliant volunteers who all come together for this week every year to highlight the importance of digital skills, the growing gap and the need to give people a chance to develop these vital skills to help us all succeed.”
National Coding Week is supported by platinum sponsor JT Group as well as Gold Sponsors Northcod-ers, and Bronze Sponsors Rocket Software. Organisations also supporting this year’s event include Makewaves, FutureLearn, Digital Festival and Women Who Code. Ruth Ng, of Northcoders, added: “National Coding Week’s ambition aligns perfectly with what we are trying to achieve as an organisation. This week is about breaking down the barriers to learning key digi-tal skills and demonstrating just how fun a career in code can be!”
Tamara O’Brien, Head of Marketing, Brand and Distribution at JT Global, said: “National Coding Week continues to raise awareness of the importance of learning digital skills and that can only be a good thing. An ability to code is already a useful tool and one that is set to become essential in our workforc-es as technology advances. We firmly believe that NCW will grow and grow and we’re proud to be a part of it.”
Andrew Simpson, engineer at Rocket Software and host of their HTML event, said: “IT skills are becom-ing increasingly important in today’s workforce. So we’re thrilled to be playing our part this National Coding Week to help people of all ages get to grips with the world of programming.”
To attend an event in your area follow on Twitter @codingweek, tweet your support using the hashtag #NationalCodingWeek or visit the website www.codingweek.org/events
