HP Australia and Code Camp partner to teach 200,000 Aussie kids to code

coding — Students attend cyber defense class in the school in Poltsamaa, Estonia, December 4, 2015. Reuters/Ints Kalnins

HP Australia has teamed up with training company Code Camp to help educate Aussie kids and empower them to become local technology professionals. The partnership aims to teach 200,000 students how to code by 2020.

Under the collaboration, HP will provide new computers to Code Camp so the latter can train young Australians in public schools across the country. It will also join HP for the forthcoming EduTECH conference, the biggest education technology event in the Asia Pacific.

Code Camp will be integrated into HP's education partner ecosystem and the camp’s school teacher training sessions will be taught at HP's customer welcome centres in Sydney and Melbourne according to the Australian Financial Review. Paul Gracey, HP Australia director of personal systems, said that he is hoping the initiative will help give school students the skills they need to meet the requirements of the future workforce.

He added that they are looking at what skills the future needs. “It's not because we have a skill gap today, but it's because we don't want one tomorrow," he stressed.

How Code Camp started

It started out as a hobby for Sydney residents Ben Levi and Peter Neil. Three years ago, they were working in an office space for start-ups when they decided to help several people around them to write code.

Code Camp has now become a nationwide education initiative, having taught more than 18,000 primary school students across Australia. It trained Aussie kids to write code after school camps and classrooms and during holiday programs and offers four different levels of programs for kids ranging from kindergarten to year six.

Today the company has 23 fulltime staff and about 1000 casual staff across the nation to teach the craft of coding. With PCs and support from HP, the company aims to teach Aussie students the “super power.”

Levi shared that they want to “create future entrepreneurs, innovators and change-makers.” “The jobs of tomorrow are about problem solving and being creative,” news.com.au quoted him as saying. He believes helping kids learn about the language that strengthens the digital world is essential for several jobseekers of the future.

The news of the partnership came weeks after the Turnbull government declared it would scrap the 457 visa program and create a new temporary skills visa, which did include some technical skills like web development on its approved skills list. It also aims to fully fund the Skilling Australians Fund.

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