- 7 April 2017

The Code Travelers: Digital Introduction for youth

BACKGROUND

A majority of the youth and adults make daily use of digital technologies but only have a slight awareness of the immense potential offered by computer programming and often do not have any skills in this field. Women, who make up only 27% of the workers in the software and IT sector, are much more likely to affected by poor computer literacy skills.

ACTIONS

The work in mobilisation, training, and facilitating of the community managed by BSF in Francophone Belgium has allowed a network of partners (local, non-profits, and institutional contributors) and of Code Travelers to take shape.

90 Code Travelers are active within the 20 structures throughout different cities. The networking is particularly strong in Brussels where a dozen structures are involved.

Volunteers and professionals have been trained in several sessions to give them the skills and tools needed to facilitate the workshops.

Regular themed events (videogames, CyrptoParty, etc.) allow the discovery of the program by a larger audience and the drafting of new volunteers.

In 2017, BSF aims to support the development of new workshops and pursue the adaptation of tools and contents according to identified needs. BSF will also contribute to making the Code Travelers more visible in their actions around the permanent educational operators.

BENEFICIARIES

  • Elementary school children, 7 to 12 years-old: in order to introduce them to digital tools starting from the youngest age (it is at this age that the children are most apt to learning new languages, like coding).
  • Adolescents and youth, 12 to 18 years-old, who are particularly exposed to risks connected to the protection of their private lives and the diffusion of data on the Internet. Furthermore, the secondary schools constitute a key stage on academic and professional orientation of the youth.
  • The program will focus more specifically on the most vulnerable populations of the region: the children and youth in academic difficulty or in a situation of dropping out, the youth in search of employment, the children and youth in a precarious socio-economic situation.