Picture report: 1st Coding Class for Women at The Impactory

Monday, October 28th. 6:30pm at The Impactory, the well-known coworking space in Luxembourg.

12 women were welcomed by Marina Thiriet, Community Manager and organizer of the first Coding classes for Women. Last night was an introduction to HTML and CSS. Nataliya, a R&D engineer from CRP Henri Tudor and Will, Software developer working for a Startup, both volunteered to be teachers for the first session, shared their passion for coding.

The 12 participants were really focused for two hours, asking a lot of questions and aiming to design their first own website. The group was really enthusiastic and followed conscientiously the instruction prepared by the teachers. The atmosphere was really positive and friendly.

Marina, why did you state in place those workshops?
“During my previous experience, as a recruitment specialist, I met many women who wanted to gain skills in the IT and Web field. I decided to get some information about coding classes initiatives in Europe and found out lot of interesting things happening abroad and at a European level. I said why not in Luxembourg? Indeed, Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission, made it clear earlier this year on the Digital Agenda: 900,000 positions are to be filled in the IT field in Europe for 2015. And there is clearly not enough women who are trained to enter this industry. Therefore Women are also missing out on opportunities.”

How did you convinced The Impactory to add those workshops in the agenda?
“I talked to a lot of members. I met Kasia from GenCreo, a startup those members met at The Impactory and later won the 2nd prize at Startup Weekend. Kasia had no background in Tech or Web and she felt she needed expertise, especially to be able to communicate with Software developers. We teamed up to organise the workshops. It was really difficult at the early stage of the project to find volunteer instructors. The Impactory supported us a great deal in providing the space. We were able to meet our teachers amongst members and during our Open Days in September. First a member, I joined part-time The Impactory team in September but I made sure to continue to carry this initiative on my own time.”

Heidi, a Finnish student in Luxembourg who works also in a Danish gaming company attended the first workshop. “We began with the basics today. It was really interesting. We all had a different background in IT and Will and Nataliya were really pedagogical. I am really longing to be on Wednesday for the next workshop and to go further in the website design creation.”

Marina was also contacted by Neelie Kroes Young advisors to become an Ambassador for Coding Week in November. “We are currently looking for sponsors or partners to be able to organise new workshops. We will also be happy to speak to volunteers who want to help us, especially with teaching”.

There can be no doubt other workshops, conferences and public meetings on that topic will be setting up in 2014.

Have a look on the meaningful picture report here

Your opinion matters. What do you think?

Total
0
Shares
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts
Total
0
Share