FutureLearn introduces adults to coding as part of National Coding Week

As part of National Coding Week this week, FutureLearn hosted a live session for adult learners at the FutureLearn headquarters, for beginners looking to learn to code for the very first time.

The session took place on Monday evening at FutureLearn’s offices and kicked-off with an introduction from Senior Product Manager, Laura Kirsop, who laid out the session to learners and talked about the importance of coding today.

FutureLearn’s Vicky Gray, Software Engineer on the online degrees team introduced learners to coding with an ‘X-Ray’ activity, showing learners how to navigate and use X-Ray Goggles.

Steve Brewer, also a Software Engineer on the online degrees team, introduced learners to CodePen, a website for creating code projects online. Software Engineer, Matt Bee, then showed learners how to use CodePen to start building their own web pages. The team were on hand to support them through building their first projects and challenge those who had grasped the basics and wanted to take on new coding challenges.

Laura, new to the coding world, said: “I knew nothing about coding and wanted to learn a hot new skill. I’ve been reading lots about it and read that there’s a huge gender gap in coding, so wanted to do something about that […] It seems like a skill that, as long as you put in the time and effort, it’s easy to do.”

Will expressed his motivations for attending the event were to understand the basics of coding to be able to support developers at his company, and added:

“Learning the basics of coding is fundamental to leading the change we need to see in industry.”

He also said: “[Coding] is like learning a new language, but once you know it, it gets easier.”

For those unable to attend the event on Monday evening, there’s the opportunity to start a range of tech and coding courses on the FutureLearn platform.