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Emerald Zone to empower preteens, teenagers with coding skills at summer

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In line with its annual social project, Emerald Zone, a business advisory, human capital development, and marketing communications’ company, has concluded arrangements to organise this year’s Code Zone, where interested teenagers are taught coding skills.

The coding class is set to commence on 1 August 2022. Emerald said the coding class, with options for participants to either join virtually or in-person is targeted at primary and secondary school children, teenagers and preteens from age 10 to 18, to upskill in coding.

Speaking on the rationale for the classes, Olufunke Akinloye, a director at Emerald and initiator of Code Zone, said the initiative was birthed out of the need to ignite the interest of the young ones in technology, irrespective of social economic class or their subjects of studies in school.

This, according to Akinloye, will enable the children and their parents appreciate the endless possibilities the coding knowledge holds for them. “Technology is transforming the world rapidly and we are determined to empower the young ones with the requisite skills that will give them confidence to face and make great impact in the world they are growing into,” Akinloye said.

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The initiator said the Code Zone, the two-hour daily coding class that was established in 2019, has trained over 50 teenagers and preteens in HTML, CSS and JavaScript in the month-long summer programme.

On the training method, Akinloye said, “Every participant expresses their learnings by bringing to life projects in their areas of interest. This helps them to showcase their creativity while practising what they have learnt.”

She said registration is currently ongoing for interested participants.

In the coding class, some parents have commended the organisers. “My son has been participating annually in the Code Zone programme since inception and I am so proud of how far he has progressed. He started from the Basic Class. Now he is going into the advanced stage of JavaScript,” Ayoola-Oni said. ‘’I love everything about Code Zone; the instructors are experts and they are professionals. They deliver beyond what they promised, and I am always happy my son is effectively using his holiday.”

Another parent, Olajoku said, “My daughter was so excited about the Code Zone last year that she has been the one reminding me that it will hold this year and she intends to be a part of it. We certainly got great value from the programme.”

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