With great curiosity students follow the moving graphic images on the computer screen while a coding trainer enthusiastically explains how to write simple scripts. For Esther Akiror, a 17-year old tailoring student at St-Daniel Comboni Polytechnic in Moroto, it is the first time she learns about coding. “This is very exciting, today I designed and decorated a cartoon.”

Africa Code Week 2017 focuses on teaching ‘Scratch’, a visual programming language developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to lower the technical threshold for coding. Uganda is one of the 35 African countries hosting over 1,500 coding workshops involving 500,000 children and youth across the continent. As coding is considered the “blue collar” skill of the 21st century, it is introduced to empower future generations with the computer skills needed by a modern workforce.

This year a collaboration was set up between Makerere University and partners such as BTC’s Support to Skilling Uganda (SSU) project, to introduce coding sessions at Vocational Technical Institutes (VTI’s) in Albertine-Rwenzori, Karamoja and Yumbe. Instructor teams composed of students from Makerere University gave coding sessions in VTI’s supported by the SSU project. These teams trained local students as well as IT-teachers of the VTI’s.

 23-year-old Edith Ndagire, a third year Telecom Engineering student, was part of the instructor team at Lokopio VTI in Yumbe. For her it was an engaging experience: “The students here are enjoying the coding lessons and have grasped faster than I expected. They are disciplined”.

The Africa Code Week initiative empowers youth such as Esther Akiror with relevant computer skills, even allowing them to create incomes for themselves. “As a tailoring student I might use coding to promote my future business.”

BTC’s participation in Africa Code Week targets VTIs and populations that are often neglected when innovative interventions such as digitalization are rolled out.