What better time to learn to code?
Today marks the start of National Coding Week 2019. Every year, the National Coding Week organisation promotes the importance of digital skills in the workplace, working with businesses, schools and libraries on events throughout the UK.
With the nation faced by a major digital skills shortage, initiatives like this are becoming more and more important. Not only do we need more young people to get involved in coding, to meet the increasing demand for these skills, organisations also need to look seriously at upskilling existing staff.
Of course, coding isn’t easy. It takes time to learn how it works and how to do it effectively. Many computer programmers these days are self-taugh, having used books and online videos to learn how to code, but self-teaching doesn’t work for everyone. Some people require assistance and feedback to progress with programming.
The problem is it takes time and money to complete proper training, which can discourage people from taking up coding. National Coding Week helps to show interested novices that there are support networks and resources that can help them with their learning, which are either free or low cost.
If you’re interested in learning to code or want to get involved with National Coding Week, check out the official website at www.codingweek.org. As well as downloadable resources and information, there’s an informative blog, which is well worth checking out.
On the website, you’ll find plenty of suggestions for how you can get involved, from writing a blog post (like this one) to running your own event or supporting a local ‘hackathon’. These coding events are intensive, collaborative affairs, where programmers get together to work rapidly on a software project. They’re held throughout the world, and you can find and organise them using sites like www.hackathon.com.
For some businesses, it makes sense to have an in-house developer or development team. An ecommerce firm, for example, would probably want to have a web developer on hand to keep its website in order.
But if your development needs are occasional, then it’s probably better to hire an external party. TMB’s own development team works on a variety of projects for our clients, producing everything from booking systems and software add-ons to SharePoint sites. As well as the initial design and implementation, TMB provides ongoing user support, but these projects don’t need the kind of frequent reworking and maintenance that would justify our clients hiring full-time programmers.
If you’re at all unsure what would be right for your business, please get in touch. We’d be happy to arrange a consultation with a TMB specialist to discuss your options. Call 0333 900 9050 or email info@tmb.co.uk.