The Isle of Man has come 3rd in this year’s overall rankings for EU Code Week, a grassroots initiative which aims to bring coding and digital literacy to everybody in a fun and engaging way. This year saw a total of over 42,000 events being held across Code Week, in a total of 74 countries around the world. We ran a total 22 events across the Isle of Man, which, based on our population size, put us right up in the rankings, alongside Malta, Italy and Estonia.

 

We spoke to Owen Cutajar, EU Code Week Ambassador for the Isle of Man, who told us more about the events held in the Isle of Man:

 

“This year we used Code Week to try and make programming more visible, showing not only children, but also adults how code can help you bring ideas to life. We held a number of different events in schools across the Isle of Man and also engaged with different communities and business spaces including Eagle Lab, The Engine House, Isle of Man Code Club, Henry Bloom Library and Jurby Community Centre. We also ran a range of different events this year, from coding in Scratch, to Robotics sessions and even got creative with little electronic devices called Microbits.

 

Technology is all around us, and I feel that coding is an essential skill in today’s world. It has never been easier to create your own app, build a robot and invent something new. These events were designed to show that these are all things within our reach and I hope that this will inspire some to pick a career in Science and Technology. Even if this is not the case, I really believe that coding can help develop skills like computational thinking, problem solving, creativity and team work, attributes which are important wherever you go.

 

I’d like to thank everyone who took part in our events and especially those who helped make our events successful. The support of MICTA, the Manx ICT Association, has been essential in making many of these events possible; all the schools who decided to get involved and helped to enrich their students through these activities; the business and community centres who, not only provided us with a venue but also access to their communities; the Isle of Man Code Club for being a constant source of inspiration and support, and most important of all, all those who volunteered their time to teach and enthuse others.”

 

There is an increasing demand for IT skills all around the world. According to the  U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, software developer jobs are expected to grow 17% over the next 10 years. They categorize this growth as “much faster” than the average rate among other professions. Closer to home, UK statistics show that digital careers are seeing double the growth rate of other industries and jobs in coding pay more than others.

 

EU Code Week was launched in 2013 by the Young Advisors for the Digital Agenda Europe. In 2017, 1.2 million people in more than 50 countries around the world took part in EU Code Week and those figured were surpassed this year. Full details of rankings and statistics can be seen here: https://codeweek.eu/scoreboard

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