Vodafone Will Give Coding Training to 300 Children in Düzce with “Coding Tomorrow” Project.

Initiated in December in Düzce within the scope of “Coding Tomorrow” project, a project implemented by Vodafone Turkey Foundation and Habitat Association in an effort to raise a generation that is ready for the digital future, the coding training has reached 100 children so far and continues. 

100 children from Düzce between the ages of 7-14 were introduced to programming and engaged in creative activities in the training event, which took place with the participation of the Minister of Science, Industry and Technology, Dr. Faruk Özlü. 

The aim of “Coding Tomorrow” project is to give coding training to 300 children in Düzce, and thereby to reach a total number of 1.100 children in the Black Sea Region, including Düzce.

TOperating with the aim of pioneering social change and development, Vodafone Turkey Foundation continues the coding training sessions that have been initiated in December in Düzce within the scope of “Coding Tomorrow” project, carried out in cooperation with Habitat Association in an effort to raise a generation that is ready for the digital future. 100 children between the ages of 7-14 have received coding training in the event with the participation of the Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Dr. Faruk Özlü, CEO of Vodafone Turkey Colman Deegan, and the Chairman of Vodafone Turkey Foundation Dr. Hasan Süel.

The aim of “Coding Tomorrow” project, which has reached 100 children in Düzce so far, is to give coding training to 300 children with 3 instructors in 2 months, thereby to reach a total of 1.100 children in the Black Sea Region, including Düzce.

Minister of Science, Industry and Technology, Dr. Faruk Özlü said:

“Digitization is a global trend. Turkey is a part of this trend. This transition is not a matter of choice, but it is a necessity, for the new rules of the world are being written digitally. Therefore, we must be the pioneers of this change. Last year, we initiated a Digital Transition Platform within our Ministry. We have been working on a road map for Turkey’s digital transition in this context. We have short, medium and long-term actions. First comes education. Education is a must for digitization. This project of Vodafone Turkey Foundation is thus extremely important. I would like to thank Vodafone Turkey Foundation and Habitat Association that work hard to make young generations the pioneers of the digital transition. In Turkey, the children between 5-14 constitute 12,5 million of the population. In Düzce, 53.000 children are between 5-14. In this age that we live in, every child opens her eyes in a digital environment. A digital generation is coming. These children will be the actors of the digital future. We must prepare our children for this world. Vodafone is doing a great service with ‘Coding Tomorrow’ project. ‘Coding Tomorrow’ is an important step towards opening the gates of the digital world to our children. Turkey will pass an important threshold in digital transition by means of this project, which teaches the basics of coding and robotics to more than 10.000 children, and of the implementation of similar projects. Digital world transforms everything from the education system to production processes, from social life to other aspects of life. We must read this new era carefully. From now on, the number of programming languages that you know is more important in your CV. Computer literacy will open more doors for us. As the ministry, we support every step towards digital transition.”

CEO of Vodafone Turkey Colman Deegan said:

“Düzce is a pioneering city in coding education. It started an exemplary initiative with its ‘Düzce Is Coding’ project, through which thousands of children have learned coding. As Vodafone, we wanted to have a hand in this, and we have involved Düzce in our Coding Tomorrow project. Coding is the language of the digital world. Future jobs will be based on coding. When each one of our children learns coding, Turkey will be digitized. The spread of coding will encourage native software. In this way, Turkey will have a generation that does not only uses technology, but also creates it. We will continue to prepare our children for the exciting world of the future.”

The Chairman of Habitat Association Sezai Hazır noted:

“As Habitat Association, we have been implementing projects in the areas of social transformation and information-based development for 20 years. We want to achieve our information-based transformation through children with ‘Coding Tomorrow’ project that we carry out in cooperation with Vodafone Turkey Foundation. Lately, we have stepped up our efforts to raise children’s awareness about coding. We work hard to develop these skills and perspective in children at a young age.”

11.500 children will be reached in 30 provinces

Children between 7-14 are being trained in coding all across Turkey with “Coding Tomorrow” project that Vodafone Turkey Foundation carries out in cooperation with Habitat Association in an effort to raise children’s awareness about coding. The project aims to reach 11.500 children in 30 provinces by April 2018. Last year, Syrian children had been included in the project, and nearly 750 Syrian children had been reached in Şanlıurfa, İstanbul and Kilis.

The provinces that will host the project’s coding trainings until March 2018 are as follows: İstanbul, Balıkesir, Kocaeli, Edirne, Bursa, Manisa, Afyon, Denizli, İzmir, Aydın, Antalya, Mersin, Adana, Samsun, Trabzon, Malatya, Rize, Şanlıurfa, Siirt, Mardin, Gaziantep, Kars, Erzurum, Elazığ, Erzincan, Ankara, Kayseri, Konya, Eskişehir, Sivas.

Scratch program is used

Within the scope of “Coding Tomorrow” project, theoretical and practical training sessions are held by volunteering instructors on the subjects of introduction to programming, app making, creating stories and games. Developed for children by MIT, the best technical university in the world, the basic coding program Scratch is being used in the training. Furthermore, there will be Arduino training for coding Internet of Things (IoT) apps. Arduino shortens the distance between children’s dreams and reality by shedding light on the interiors of electronic devices that are thought to be an unknown black box. As a user-friendly, open source hardware that is designed for people with no technical expertise, Arduino allows children to build their own thermometers or remote control cars. A national camp will be held following the Arduino training, and successful students will be introduced to major coding platforms abroad.

“Coding Tomorrow” set an example to the world

“Coding Tomorrow” is featured in Vodafone Group’s “Connected Education” report as a success story, and has set an example to the world in digital literacy with its sustainable education model. “Connected Education” report presents the initiatives led by Vodafone in an effort to facilitate digitization in education across the world, and covers 14 different initiatives under 4 main themes, that are “Access to Online Education Platforms/Apps”, “Digital Literacy Education”, “Educating the Educators”, and “Education In Refugee Camps”. With the spread of the digital initiatives that are mentioned in the “Connected Education” report in countries and markets in which Vodafone operates, it will be possible to reach more than 85 million people by the year 2025, and to achieve an annual economic benefit of 7,3 billion dollars.

Future jobs will be based on coding

As the “language” of the digital world, coding improves children’s creativity and teaches them innovative thinking. According to OECD’s last report on digital economy, two out of every three children will have jobs that are unknown to us today. In the future, there will be jobs like robotics veterinary, holoportation expert, ethical hacker, emotion designer, data miner, artificial organ manufacturer, or dream facilitator. These utopian-sounding jobs will have places in corporations in 20 years, and they will all be based on coding.

You can see the video at: https://we.tl/Jxizyz6pYH