Unemployment disproportionately affects low-income communities, many of which are made up of minorities and other underrepresented populations. These groups of people are especially underrepresented in the tech field, which holds plenty of employment potential for all Americans, but millennials in particular. Julia Glum of the International Business Times examines this in a recent article titled “Coding For Kids: Teaching Girls, Minorities To Program Important For A Diverse Tech Workforce.”
Glum writes, “The United States needs to find roughly 1 million more tech workers in the next five years, and they can’t all be rich, white males. With computer science workers increasingly in demand, tech advocates have begun to reach out to demographics that historically haven’t considered coding as a profession to ensure low-income Americans, women and minorities don’t get left behind.”
Computer World takes it a step further by looking at one woman’s effort to tackle this issue head-on. Mary K. Pratt of Computer World covers this in a story titled “Black Girls Code founder looks to expand skills outreach, challenges CIOs to help the cause.” Pratt writes, “Programmers aren’t usually featured in People magazine, but computer scientist Kimberly Bryant made the cut, landing on the magazine’s June 16 list of ‘15 Women Changing the World Right Now.’ Indeed, Bryant is making a difference. She started Black Girls Code in 2011, inspired in part by her desire to offer a richer digital experience to her own daughter, 15-year-old Kai. Since then, this chapter-based nonprofit has taught programming to more than 3,000 girls across the country. Here, Bryant shares her thoughts on the importance of her mission.”
Bryant tells Pratt, “We look at technology and teaching computer science as an innovative skill set that will be at the core of the nonindustrial, but still industrial, revolution. And if this revolution is focused on technology, having women of color at the forefront and being key participants in learning this skill set is revolutionary. Women in general have not been at the core of driving the next economic/jobs revolution in any other industrial revolution we’ve been through. Giving them the keys to the kingdom is really changing the paradigm.”
At CodeREV Kids, we couldn’t agree more. This is why we offer after-school programs and summer camps to immerse youth in coding. We teach our students Computational Thinking, which encompasses a wide range of programming concepts and languages. Our summer camp programming includes Wild Web Design, Rev Robots, and Minecraft Level Design.
Whatever youth coding education needs you might have, your best bet is CodeREV Kids!