Earlier this year, I went to Front End North, a conference for web developers which ran at the City Hall. One of the speakers was Tejay White, who mentioned during her talk that Code First: Girls (CFG) were looking for instructors. I arranged to meet Tejay for a cuppa and to find out more.
Tejay explained she’d been an instructor at CF:G for a few years at Sheffield University, and there was a new course being put together to run at Sheffield Hallam. I put in an application and after having a short interview, I’m really excited to announce that I have been accepted as an instructor! ?
Code First: Girls is a social enterprise set up with aim of increasing the number of women working in the tech industry. Their 2020 campaign has the aim of training 20,000 women to code by the end of 2020 and all instructors on their community course are volunteers.
The course is an introduction to creating a website and runs for 8 weeks this Autumn. The course is open to those identifying as women/non-binary and the students shouldn’t have any previous experience
Over the course the students will learn;
- How the Internet works
- The basics of HTML / CSS / Version Control / Javascript & Bootstrap
- How to put a website online (and produce one as part of their coursework)
The process starts with a review of applicants to shortlist them, and then in a couple of weeks we get started. I can’t wait!
I was keen to get involved at Hallam as it was the University I attended. I’m also keen to support people getting into the industry and as a whole would love to see more women working in tech.
It is exciting to be a part of the CF:G scheme and I can’t wait to see what the students produce!
Updated Dec 2018
We had 18 students this semester. I really enjoyed the course and also seeing the progress. I thought the students did amazingly well learning so much in just 8 weeks!
Updated Jan 2019
I’ll be heading back to Hallam again this spring to be part of the next intake of students.
