What is EU Code Week?

EU Code Week is a grass-root movement run by volunteers who promote coding in their countries as Code Week Ambassadors. Anyone – schools, teachers, libraries, code clubs, businesses, public authorities – can organise a #CodeEU event and add it to the codeweek.eu map.

Who can organise a Code Week event?

Anyone can organise a Code Week event.

• Kids/teenagers/adults can organise coding events to show others how you create with code.
• Schools / after school clubs / adult evening classes can organise events for their students. Coding online or unplugged is fun and teaches computational thinking!
• Teachers and librarians who code can hold coding classes, share their lessons plans, organise workshops for colleagues.
• Teachers and librarians who don't code can invite parents or students to teach participants coding.
• Coders can organise workshops in local schools, hack spaces or community centres and invite people to create with code.
• Code clubs can organise workshops for new participants and show then how to make a game or an app with code.
• Businesses and non-profit organisations can host coding workshops, lend their staff to coach at different events, organise fun coding challenges, offer sponsorship for coding events.

What do you need?

• A group of people willing to learn. For example, your friends, kids, teenagers, adults colleagues, friends, parents or grandparents. Remember, two is a group already!
• Coaches or trainers who know coding, how to teach and inspire others. The number depends on the type and size of the event. For hands-on workshops, you may need one coach per 5-8 participants, but it all depends. Participants can also help each other! For larger events, it might be a good idea to have a host that makes sure everyone has what they need and keep things running smoothly.
• A place to be. Classrooms, libraries, conference rooms and various public spaces all make a great event venue.
• Computers. Depending on your target group, you might ask participants to bring their own laptops, in which case don't forget to provide enough power outlets.
• Internet connection – WiFi or fixed connections. Make sure your connections will be able to handle the traffic coming from your group
• Coding unplugged. You actually don't need computers and internet connection to learn computational thinking. Try out some off-line coding with our Cody-Roby kit.
• Something to work with and learn.Show participants how fun it can be to create something on their own. Check out our list of resources and search the web for existing lesson plans, workshop programs and adjust them to your group's needs. If you have existing computer equipment at the venue, make sure they already have the necessary software installed and provide participants with instructions on how the installation can be done on their own devices.
• Register participants. If you have limited spaces available, you can use tools like online forms like Wufoo, Google Forms or event pages on Facebook or Eventbrite to collect registrations. While we do favour free to attend events, you can charge a small fee to cover the costs of the event. Alternately, you can turn to local IT companies or startups for sponsorship.
• Pin your event on the Code Week map!

Read more. Read also a blog on how long does it take to learn to code. Have a look at the EU's Digital Internship framework.

#Coding is not rocket science. We're looking for teachers & ICT enthusiasts to organize #CodeEU events https://t.co/ZK6rwXfW9t #backtoschool pic.twitter.com/YV5RX647Dz

— DigitalSingleMarket (@DSMeu) August 28, 2017