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Matt Meyer
County Executive | New Castle County, DE

1000 Kids Coding

Idea Category: Education

Problem

Across the country and in New Castle County, there is a mismatch between available jobs and people skilled to perform them. One key gap is in the technology area, where the jobs of tomorrow across many industries will increasingly rely on software development skills, and where there exists a shortage of qualified developers.

In schools serving low-income students in New Castle County, there is little intensive technology education, creating an income-based gap in educational –and career– opportunities. Leaders in county government created the vision for 1000 Kids Coding to help fill that gap by providing hands-on technology education programs in middle and high schools and other settings to prepare county youth for the jobs of tomorrow.

Solution

1000 Kids Coding will engage students in intensive coding education, including designing websites for actual clients. Working with partners who are experts in teaching and mentoring students in coding skills and client engagement, students will learn underlying coding languages and apply them by designing real websites for actual clients. We piloted this concept this summer as part of the county’s Summer Youth Employment Program.

The firm Code Differently engaged 23 students from low-income families in a “Development Shop” or “Dev Shop” environment, and the students got paid to work in teams to design websites for clients, using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The students made amazing progress in the 9-weeks, in both coding and soft skills.