According to Code.org, 71% of all new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) jobs are in computing, yet only 8% of STEM graduates are in Computer Science. Worldwide – and in South Africa – software programmers are in high demand and learning to code will increase a child’s chance of securing a successful and lucrative STEM career.
Today marks the start of the 2nd annual “Everyone Can Code” summit, hosted by Think Ahead, which takes place at Redhill School in Sandton. Aimed at teachers, the summit urges South African educators to join the coding classroom revolution to ensure that South African education does not lag behind.
Michelle Lissoos, MD at Think Ahead, comments: “Today we will cover topics such as Coding 101 for educators and how to bring creativity and coding together. There are so many reasons to teach our youth coding. For example, coding teaches you problem solving, resilience and creative thinking. It also gives you power in a world run by technology. This summit aims to bringing coding to the South African classroom.”
The keynote address by Miriam Walsh will explore creativity and coding and how to engage learners through code, preparing them for jobs that have not yet been invented.