Why Everyone Should Learn How To Code

I propose in this article that everyone should learn how to code, yes, every adult individual in our modern society should have an idea of coding. There are many advantages of having coding knowledge. We are in a computer age where everything is going digital. In this article, I will be x-raying the many pluses to having a coding skill.

What is Coding?

Coding involves the act and process of writing codes used for building computer programs. Programming enables us to give specific instructions to systems and digital devices. A person who writes a computer program is called a Programmer.

What Coding does?

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For one thing, coding teaches people to think, not just to think but to think critically and analytically. It improves creativity and innovation. Coding also enables people to work together across physical boundaries and to communicate in a universal language. Technology makes life easier, and coding brings it closer to you. Therefore everyone should learn how to code.

Coding makes it possible for humans and computer to interact. It enables you to do a lot of things like web design, app development, artificial intelligence etc. Almost everything you do today is powered by code; be it the computer system you work with, your mobile phone, your car GPS, social media communications, buying and selling online, all these are powered by coding. Coding knowledge is a must-have in today’s world; it’s the literacy of today.

Coding helps us solve problems, create new things and advance our civilization. It also enhances teamwork, analytical thinking, smart work, increased productivity. To this end, basic coding skills are also needed for most jobs today. Most professional occupations in the 21^st century require digital competencies like coding.

Students and Coding

Everyone Should Learn How To Code. Even present-day students are not left out in this coding (digital) revolution. They seem to be budding in a world very different from the one their teachers saw, and there are fascinating opportunities awaiting them in this generation. Therefore there is the need to re-examine what our students really need in order to thrive in their digital generation.

Today’s students need to be introduced to the basics of computer coding so they can begin to learn from an early stage what they will need to power their civilization. 21st-century global challenges can only be successfully overcome by technology and computer-aided human resourcefulness. Today’s young programmers will be the individuals creating solutions for the challenges of tomorrow.

England and Wales have already set the pace, as their Departments for Education, realizing the necessity of basic computer science to all students, earlier in 2014 implemented one of the largest curriculum changes in decades by replacing the subject Information and Communication Technology (ICT) with Computing. One of the core components of this new subject is coding. This goes a long way in explaining how vital this skill is to our society today.

Schools all over the world are waking up to this reality and soon they will follow the UK lead in revolutionalizing the education system with coding being at the fore of this revolution. As Steve Jobs rightly put it, “Everyone in this country should learn how to program a computer… because it teaches you how to think.” In the 20th Century, meaningful education was all about learning your ABCs. Today, it’s centred on Alphas, Betas and C++.

The agony is that so many people still think that coding skills should be reserved for only tech experts. But that is actually a terminological inexactitude and I beg to correct this error-ridden stereotype.

There is this erroneous belief among many that you must be a guru in mathematics and science before you can have a headway in programming. That’s a complete fallacy. You don’t need to be well-grounded in any specific discipline before you can learn to programme. You also don’t have to go back to school to learn to code. All you have to do is learn and understand the basic process and then practice it.

Let’s also talk about how lucrative tech skills. There is no doubt that tech skill is in so much demand now. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 913,000 computer programmer jobs in 2010. The number of coding jobs is only expected to increase over time. That number is expected to jump 30% from 2010 to 2020, unlike the average growth of all other U.S. jobs, predicted at just 14%.

Opportunities in Coding

These vacancies exist and there are not many people available to fill up these positions because technological innovation and advancement are moving faster than what we are being taught in our schools and institutions. Therefore we should consider restructuring our educational system to suit the current technological trend.

Everyone must not necessarily become expert web developers, or the next Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. But then, having an idea of what actually happens behind the digital curtain is very important.

Either to boost your career in the tech industry, the Human Resource, Management, administrative or financial sector or to keep pace with the digital trend of the world, there is no better time to gain that coding knowledge. Digital skills have never been more important and easily accessible than now.

So what are you waiting for?

Begin to code today!

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