In an effort to encourage young people to consider careers in technology
fields, Code for Cape Town has partnered with http://takealot.com, South Africa’s
largest online store, who opened its doors this week to host 40 aspiring
female coders for a 3 hour introductory coding workshop.
The workshop highlighted career opportunities for coders, developed
learners’ computational thinking ability and even had them coding their
first project.
Learners came from several Cape Town schools including Westerford,
Claremont High and Cape Academy for Maths, Science and Technology.
“I find coding fascinating after today” said Lilitha Ayabonga Zosiwe, a
Grade 10 learner from Cape Academy for Maths, Science and Technology.
Fatima Floris from Claremont High School added, “As someone who doesn’t
really know what I want to do, coding is definitely now an option.”
As one of South Africa’s leading ecommerce companies and an innovative
technology-led business, Takealot has an ever-increasing number of roles
that require ambitious engineers with strong coding skills.
“We’re excited to see more and more girls participating in Code 4 Cape Town
and love the initiative as it really speaks to our business values”, said
Julie-Anne Walsh, Chief Marketing Office at Takealot, “We encourage all
young people to develop their coding skills as early as possible, along
with a passion for maths. There are so many exciting career opportunities
ahead for them – especially at Takealot where we face interesting technical
challenges every day that need smart, ambitious engineers to solve complex
problems.”
During February and March up to 600 girls will be able to attend Code for
Cape Town’s Power of Coding workshop. Girls can register on Quicket for
workshops at Cape Town Science Centre, American Corner and Bandwidth Barn.