Most of us agree that the youth are the key demographic that needs to be reached with coding education. They’re the ones entering the workforce that is more demanding of skilled laborers by the day, especially workers with technical skills like coding. Different states are going about reaching youth in different ways.

For example, in Utah, lawmakers just approved a bill to fund computer coding classes. According to Morgan Jacobsen of KSL, “SB107 would allocate just more than $2 million for the Utah STEM Action Center and the Utah State Board of Education to approve and purchase computer coding software programs teachers could use to teach the skill, which is in high demand among employers in the state and across the nation, according to bill sponsor Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper… Up to $1.5 million would be used to license computer coding instructional software for schools, and $320,000 would be used to provide professional development for teachers. The bill would also require the STEM Action Center and the State School Board to report back to the Legislature on how successful the program becomes. The bill doesn’t recommend any particular source for instructional software. Instead, several programs would be selected on a competitive basis. Some schools that are already using free software to teach the skill could allocate the funds to professional development instead, Stephenson said.”

Meanwhile, in Boulder, Colorado, one firm is using an apprenticeship program to tackle the problem. According to Gloria Dickie of the Daily Camera, “Located in Boulder’s core, Techtonic Group is a software development company with clients that range from the Denver Center for Performing Arts to Disney to FedEx. But while its clientele may be impressive, it’s Techtonic’s programmers who truly set the business apart. In early 2014, CEO Heather Terenzio grew concerned about what she saw as a gap in the workforce. Where were the minorities and the women, she wondered, and the high school dropouts? So Terenzio set about to establish an apprenticeship program that would allow disadvantaged youths to enter the coding world without hitting the barriers they would encounter at other traditional institutions.”

At CodeRev Kids we believe we can best tackle coding education with after-school programs and summer camps taught by instructors who focus on both being informative and fun. We even customize our classes for each of our students because we understand everyone learns differently. CodeRev Kids has a variety of after-school programs options including robotics, game development, and interactive programming.

If you’re looking to give your child the most informative, as well as engaging, coding education experience, no one does it better than CodeRev Kids!

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!

At CodeREV Kids, we understand the potential coding occupations hold for many young people in the United States. The Boston Globe explores this in a recent article titled “Unsexy but tech-forward industries offer hope to middle class.”

Dante Ramos of the Boston Globe writes, “Today, the advanced industries now growing in Massachusetts differ significantly in the amount of education they require, and a four-year college degree may not be the only route into them. Many concepts in electrical and mechanical engineering are equally useful to MIT students and to participants in employer- or union-backed training. What’s vital is that students at all levels learn skills that are transferable across fields. An inevitable objection — especially in the Athens of America — is that there’s more to education than mere job training. But we didn’t always treat the latter as a distraction from the former. Bluestone, who grew up in Detroit, recalls taking wood shop, machine shop, and industrial drawing in high school. Today, some technical skills, such as coding and data analysis, have broad application. Students who learn them can engage more thoughtfully with the world around them, whether they end up in graduate school or behind the controls of high-end machines on a factory floor.”

With this understanding, people are using whatever resources they can to inspire an interest in coding. This includes a Sponge Bob coding game. Stuart Dredge of The Guardian looks at this in a recent article titled “Nickelodeon hopes SpongeBob SquarePants will get kids coding.” Dredge writes, “Another television brand has joined the kids’ coding bandwagon, with Nickelodeon UK’s launch of a website called Code-It that aims to teach programming skills to 6-12 year-olds. The site uses various characters from the network’s shows, including SpongeBob SquarePants and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to help children learn and practise various coding tasks.”

When it comes to making sure coding education is its most effective, nothing is more effective than having experienced teachers working beside your child. At CodeREV Kids, we provide the after-school programs and summer camps to give your child the coding skills to succeed in today’s workforce.

Our students learn Computational Thinking, which encompasses a wide range of programming concepts and languages. CodeREV Kids’ Lessons build upon one another, and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. By doing this, the entire curriculum is customized. We consider ourselves one of the most educational coding program out there, but we also focus on having fun.

Whatever youth coding education needs you might have, you can’t go wrong with CodeREV Kids!

For some adults, providing their children with coding education is a form of giving their children what they never had. As there continues to be a high demand for coders in the workforce, parents understand that coding is no longer an optional skill. Inevitably, some feel helpless, wondering if it’s too late to learn coding at their age.

As your child grows his/her coding skills in CodeRev Kids afterschool programs, you can explore coding along with them by participating in adult coding classes. Matthew Flamm of Crain’s New York Business details adult coding classes in an article titled “Coding schools aren’t just for kids.” Flamm writes, “At General Assembly, the largest of New York City’s schools, which offer 12-week crash courses for around $12,000, 18% of students across all of its campuses in the U.S. and abroad are 35 or older. The school’s biggest group, not surprisingly, remains people in their mid-20s—just like much of the industry the over-35 graduates hope to join. Despite the age difference, these freshly minted developers have high hopes for their new careers, and can sound as fervent about coding as any hoodie-wearing college dropout. Some are transitioning from related computer fields in order to build digital products, while others are embracing the technology that helped put them out of a job.”

There are clear benefits to taking these courses, as evidenced by Emma Ockerman of the Detroit Free Press in an article titled “Coding classes help women change career.” According to Ockerman, “Amy Cell, senior vice president of talent enhancement with the Michigan Economic Development Corp., said most in the IT field make $70,000 to $80,000 a year, with software developers usually making more than $80,000 a year. She added, however, that someone with a degree in computer science from a top university could expect to make six figures. She said there are currently 1,100 available jobs in IT statewide, and more than 750 of those are within 50 miles of Detroit.”

Clearly, if you’re new to coding, adult classes could be a lucrative investment. Likewise, participating in afterschool programming with CodeRev Kids is a great investment for you and your children. By 2020, one million computing jobs will go unfilled in the United States due to a lack of appropriate preparation of our future work force. Your child could fill one of those positions.

With CodeRev Kids, we don’t just provide quality education. We also make learning fun. Students can participate in a variety of different tracks, including our Da Vinci, Web Magic, Rocking Robotics, and Game Developer tracks.

Whatever youth coding education needs you have, we’ve got you covered at CodeRev Kids!

Click below to view the clip of us coding on the Queen’s show:  http://bcove.me/5tih2s2g.

Yep, that is our instructor, Jehlali Chatman, working with the kids at IMHP, featured on the Queen Latifah show.  We are proud to be partnered with these friends to teach coding to underserved communities in Los Angeles.  We are so excited to continue expanding our partnership together.

Thanks Lionel Pasamonte and Delores Brown for finding us and helping make this dream a reality!

We are very happy to be continuing to work with IMHP in Ladera Heights to provide our pilot coding classes to our group of very smart students.

We just checked out our venue at Leimert Theater for upcoming Saturday classes with kids in South L.A.  Very excited about doing this work.

On the horizon is coding at the EXPO Center next to the Forum.  So happy to be spreading our program all around L.A.

After a number of Broadway students joined our winter camp, due to popular demand, we are partnering with Broadway Elementary’s afterschool program to provide our Modding and Adventures in Programming classes to students on campus for Winter Term.  In less than 2 days since registration opened, we have almost completely filled our 60 slots.

If you read this and you would like us to come offer our courses at your school, please let us know and let your school’s afterschool coordinator know.  We will be happy to talk with them about arranging a similar class…AND WE BRING THE COMPUTERS TO THE SCHOOL.

We can’t wait to spread coding to students everywhere.

Winter Camp Pic

Thank you to all our wonderful campers who made last week’s winter camp so amazing.  Students built and customized their own websites using HTML 5 and CSS 3.  They created their own blocks, items, worlds, teleporting, lightning-shooting swords, created and customized their own armor, and even made their own biomes.  Talk about heaven for any student who loves Minecraft and creativity.  Of course, they had to code in Java to accomplish these awesome feats.  Who knew that 3rd-5th graders could write code in Java!!!  Well, we’ve proved that they can.

Students modeled and animated their own 3D projects using Maya 3D, created unique games and projects in Scratch, and learned to code in Javascript and Python!!!

We’ve attached a pic from our winter camp above so you can check it out!