In collaboration with Learnlink, a Norwegian company providing online teaching services, we welcomed a group of eager children between the ages of 8 and 13 to attend coding courses over the summer at the Visma headquarters in Oslo. Whether the kids were mainly interested in Roblox or playing Minecraft, the course content was suitable for anyone wishing to explore their interests within technology, coding and gaming.
Skills such as self-confidence, exploring your inner drive and being able to motivate oneself are not taught in school. The relevancy of current school syllabuses has been widely discussed in recent years, as many believe parts are outdated and have requested more focus on modern-day technology. This is in order for children and students to become better prepared for common requirements of today’s workplaces. Although there is an increasing demand for developers and programmers across the world, adequate education and experience amongst IT professionals is lacking. Thus, Visma is on a mission to find talented and tech savvy people to help fill this gap.
Learnlink provides tutoring services and was founded by students who identified a need for new ways of learning in 2016. Now, they teach coding and mathematics, and provide guidance for study techniques. Their aim is to make learning more fun and they focus on practising one’s ability to resonate on their own. By encouraging the younger generation to explore new study techniques, they strive to make the syllabus engaging and memorable.
Have fun while learning
“My son has grown really tired of school, but he is never bored at Learnlink’s courses, even though he is learning coding at a university level. The tutors are very engaged and they closely follow up every single child. My son seems to feel a sense of security when he attends these types of courses. The Learnlink courses are also quite social and he has made many new friends.”
– Sonja, mother of 11 year-old Magnus
The goal of the summer course was ultimately to give the children an opportunity to experience a sense of accomplishment while also learning something new and useful. Spread across multiple meeting rooms turned into classrooms at the Visma headquarters, Learnlink provided the kids with a fun and social environment in which they learned how to code from mid June to mid August. The levels of coding experience varied and there were lessons tailored for all levels, leaving the kids wanting to learn more and continue their progress – not because they have to, but because they enjoyed it. By engaging the younger generation in coding, we hope to see an increase in IT professionals and an improvement of the shortage of IT knowledge we see today.
“The course was one of my favourite experiences this summer. I learned coding my own games and met fun new people! I’ve used what I learned to continue coding after the course ended, and building games together with my friends. I’m really looking forward to the next course!”
– Magnus (11)
