Female Tech Leaders Get Behind The Hour Of Code Campaign

Four of the UK’s most influential female technology entrepreneurs have come together to launch the Hour of Code, an initiative that aims to give every primary and secondary school student in the country at least an hour of code tutoring.

They include Sherry Coutu, chair of Founders4Schools who serves on the boards of Raspberry Pi Foundation and LinkedIn, Joanna Shields, former Facebook executive and chair of Tech City, Karen Price, CEO of e-skills UK, and venture capitalist Avid Larizadeh, co-founder and COO of online boutique Boticca.

“The way we work, live and experience the world is changing,” said Shields. “Digital tools are helping everyone, not just engineers and computer scientists, to create exciting new experiences, products and services. If we want our kids to be more than just passive consumers – if we want them to become a generation of creators and makers – we need to teach them about the building blocks of today’s world, and I can’t imagine a better way to start than the Hour of Code.”

The initiative fits into the Year of Code education campaign, launched by the UK government last week.

Strong support

Later this year, computing will be introduced to primary schools as a subject for the very first time, with pupils as young as five taught how to create and debug simple programs. The new curriculum promises to challenge both children and their teachers, since this approach has never been tested.

On Monday, the four women joined other tech luminaries for the launch of Hour of Code, an initiative created by Code.org. For a week in March, both kids and their parents will have the opportunity to take a 60-minute introductory course of coding, absolutely free.

The idea has been extremely successful in the US, where it originated – close to 20 million students gave coding a try in December 2013. The course has been designed to be accessible and fun – for example, in one tutorial Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft’s Bill Gates team up encourage learners to program their very own Angry Bird.

Meanwhile, the starting date (3 March) marks the 25th anniversary of the creation of the World Wide Web by Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

“Hour of Code is a great way to introduce children to this life-changing skill, which will be as important to this generation as reading and writing. Employers are telling us that learning to code must be a national priority, and we’re delighted that schools are being offered these exciting and accessible resources,” commented Price.

This month, Shields has stepped down as the CEO of Tech City to be replaced by former BlackBerry executive Gerard Grech, but she continues to serve as the chair of the London-based organisation.

In January, both Shields and Coutu were appointed as non-executive directors of the London Stock Exchange, boosting their profile even further.

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