Published on the 04/09/2014 | Written by Newsdesk

An after-school computer code writing programme for intermediate and secondary school Kiwis will officially kick off at ITx, New Zealand’s conference of IT, in early October. IITP’s Techblog editor Simon Eskrow reports…

Code Club Aotearoa, a volunteer-led programme designed to teach middle and high school students the basics of computer programming and software design, will be part of ITx, including a special event on October 10 when 100 students will demonstrate how the clubs have been running so far.

“IITP strongly supports the Code Club Aotearoa movement and will be working closely with the initiative alongside ICT-Connect, the Institute’s in-school programme promoting ICT careers,” says IITP chief executive Paul Matthews. “While CodeClubs are independent, the two programmes will work hand in hand with IITP supporting the establishment of Code Clubs at some of the hundreds of ICT-Connect schools across the country.”

Code Club Aotearoa started off as an independent movement to give high school students a solid understanding of what an IT careers entails. Founder Mike Trengrove told IITP:

“I never had the opportunity while growing up to learn to code or hear about what the industry is really like. I left school with such a wild perception around what IT and computer programming was all about that it wasn’t until my late 20s when I first learnt to code that it all began to change.

“After I landed my first job I couldn’t believe what my job entailed and how misrepresented this industry is to the wider New Zealand audience. I was paid to work in a cross-functional team, use my creativity and intuition working on products that were helping solve problems for literally millions of people around the world.”

Trengrove said the organisation started well and partnered with the UK-based Code Club programme early this year, which had grown from one club to 2500 clubs teaching close to 30,000 students to code every week across the UK.

When Trengrove and others made the first presentation at an Aranui High School assembly, teachers warned that potentially not one student would want to learn to code outside of school and not to set their expectations high.

Trengrove said: “We were completely overrun by students and teachers, out of around 300 students at the assembly that day we had 85 sign up wanting to take part in our free after school coding lessons, with several teachers as well.”

The organisation now has around 20 volunteers working with clubs in Christchurch and Auckland, with four new clubs scheduled to open in the next term, and IT companies now approaching the organisation to adopt a region and encourage staff to volunteer.

The organisation will unveil its website at the ITx event, which will make it easy for volunteers, parents and students to set up or join a local club. The intention is to expand as rapidly in New Zealand as the UK and see clubs throughout the country.

*This article first appeared on the Institute of IT Professional’s (IITP) blog.