Vodafone Will Give Coding Training to 500 Children In Kocaeli with “Coding Tomorrow” Project.

Initiated in September in Kocaeli within the scope of “Coding Tomorrow” project, which is 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.

20 children from Kocaeli between the ages of 7-14 were introduced to programming, and engaged in creative activities in the training sessions, in which President of Grand National Assembly of Turkey’s Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men and Member of Parliament from Kocaeli, Radiye Sezer Katırcıoğlu has also participated.

The aim of “Coding Tomorrow” project is to give coding training to 500 children in Kocaeli, and thereby to reach a total number of 1.900 children in Marmara Region, including Kocaeli.

Operating with the aim of pioneering social change and development, Vodafone Turkey Foundation continues the coding training that was initiated in September in Kocaeli within the scope of “Coding Tomorrow” project, carried out in cooperation with Habitat Association with an effort to raise a generation that is ready for the digital future. 20 children between the ages of 7-14 have been trained in coding in the event with the participation of the President of Grand National Assembly of Turkey’s Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, and Member of Parliament from Kocaeli, Radiye Sezer Katırcıoğlu; Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality Deputy Mayor, Zekeriya Özak; and Lieutenant Governor of Kocaeli, Ahmet Büyükçelik. Children from Kocaeli were introduced to programming and engaged in creative activities.

“Coding Tomorrow” project has reached 100 children in Kocaeli so far. The aim is to train 500 children, thereby to reach a total number of 1.900 children in Marmara Region, including Kocaeli.

In the meeting, the President of Grand National Assembly of Turkey’s Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, and Member of Parliament from Kocaeli, Radiye Sezer Katırcıoğlu said:

“Young generations are one of the most important assets of a country, and their preparation for the information sector is essential for the country’s development. We must read the technological advancements in the world correctly. We must encourage our children to discover their potentials. I think the secret of success is self-confidence. We must be able to notice our capabilities. We must become a country that gets copied, not a country that copies, and we have made significant progress in this area. In the light of these developments, I think that we can achieve local and national success. We want a generation that creates technology, not merely uses it. I believe that we will reach brilliant minds with ‘Coding Tomorrow’ project. We must increase the appeal of science, technology, mathematics, and engineering. We must create our education models in line with this. New jobs will emerge in the future. We must prepare our younger generations for these jobs. We must catch up with innovative developments in order to catch up with a market in the global economy. We can prepare our younger generations for informatics or engineering with these kinds of projects. With this project, we will light the way for young people. As the number of the bright minds who code the future increases, our country will move forward even faster. I think we must not leave this project at the educational level, but take it further. I congratulate those who contributed to this project.”

The President of Vodafone Turkey Foundation Dr. Hasan Süel said:

“Coding courses for children constitute a significant portion of our recent social investments. We aim to raise a generation that not only uses technology, but also creates it, and we have come a long way thanks to ‘Coding Tomorrow’ project. Our project is featured in Vodafone’s ‘Connected Education’ report as an example to whole world, and has become a source of pride for us. We have taught 8.800 children in 27 provinces so far. Our aim is to reach 10.000 children in 30 provinces by the end of the 2017-18 financial year. We are once again happy to be in Kocaeli. Since September, we have introduced 100 children from Kocaeli to the language of digital world, coding. In the next 4 months, we aim to reach 500 children in this province through the training that we will carry out with 5 instructors. We will reach a total number of 1.900 children in Marmara Region, including Kocaeli. Our total aim is 1.900 children in this region. We believe that the children who have joined and will join to our ‘Coding Tomorrow’ project from Kocaeli will have a pioneering role in our country’s digital future.”
10.000 children in 30 provinces will be reached

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. 8.800 children have received coding training in 27 provinces so far, and the project aims to reach 10.000 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 training sessions 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 being 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 sessions. 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” has 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 was announced in London in June, and presented the initiatives led by Vodafone in an effort to facilitate digitization in education across the world. The report 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.

Coding is spreading

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. Therefore, children are taught coding, just as they are taught math. Coding is in the primary school curricula in a lot of EU countries. Turkey also plans to include coding into curriculum from the 1^st grade to the 12^th.

For Video: https://we.tl/Galz0w89FO