You may ask yourself if learning to code software is a valuable skill? Will it be a skill I need in the future? What would be in it for me? Will it be useful for my career? These are all valuable questions to ask yourself. But, if for no other reason learning to code will help you to learn to think in a better way. Programming changes all the time and it probably doesn’t matter too much if we don’t understand the subtleties but being able to think a problem through in a logical order, clearly and precisely is an invaluable skill for all of us. Get creative. Bring something to life. The possibilities are endless and can touch all aspects of our life. So go ahead and empower yourself.
Kate Sole, Programmes Manager at the GTA, joint Facilitator of Coding Fundamentals and Web Design & Digital Strategy for Beginners
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‘We at the GTA are seeing a real surge in interest in coding. We have people from all walks of life attending our coding related courses, from those who want to develop their website or App to those who want to create a notification system with an Arduino.’
One of our GTA’s delegates Simon Sole says: "I work for an in-house design agency, producing artwork for print. The growth now is in online media rather than print and so this is where I want to expand my skills. The GTA in conjunction with Codex ran a 2-hour taster course in coding last autumn with Jordan Love & Richard Rolfe, which I enjoyed. This led me to enrol this year on their more intensive Web Design & Digital Strategy for Beginners, which gave me the confidence to design and produce my own website, thecreativesoul.net. I intend to use the site to showcase my skills, while at the same time exploring and learning more fully the art of web design. The GTA has opened the door for me to grow and develop my career in a new direction.’’
As part of Coding week the GTA is running Coding Fundamentals which we are hosting in conjunction with The Digital Greenhouse. This is a perfect starting point for someone wanting to explore an interest in the area and get a taste for its possibilities. This highly interactive, practical course will offer you the opportunity to use a device which will allow you to develop something fun and exciting whilst introducing you in a practical way to the principles of coding.
John Gocher the tutor for the course says ‘Learning to programme a Personal Computer or Smart Phone can be a daunting task. What I’ve found is that having an underlying knowledge of the computer at a Micro Computer/Controller level can be invaluable to this learning process. Using the Arduino platform and the C programming language, this course is designed to get those fundamentals in place. A must before moving on to higher languages like Python, C#, Swift and Objective C.”
Kate Sole from the GTA says: ‘Learn something new and exciting today. Go coding, Go Coding Fundamentals!’