Preparing The Next Generation

Most children know how to operate a smartphone or a tablet. Kids Code Jeunesse, a Montreal-based not-for-profit organization, believes they should be even more computer-literate. The group gives workshops to students as young as six, about basic computer programming skills.

On January 16, classes at École des Grands-Êtres in Saint-Laurent learned about coding – skills needed to produce computer software.

« The school systems are not moving fast enough in this digital age so we help accelerate that. We train teachers and we support them to teach these essential skills, » says Kate Arthur, CEO and founder of Kids Code Jeunesse.

Last year, the federal government allocated $50 million to several groups, including Kids Code Jeunesse, to teach coding to more than one million students across the country from kindergarten to Grade 12.

« In the next ten years, we’re going to have jobs we don’t even know about today. The best way to prepare them is at a very young age, » says Saint-Laurent MP Emmanuella Lambropoulos, present for the workshop.

Kids Code Jeunesse hopes coding will one day be a part of all school curriculums.