Jersey Coders is re-starting in September after the summer break. The Club, which is staffed by volunteers and sponsored by JT and supported by Digital Jersey, is the only club in Jersey supporting teenagers with their computer coding and IT skills.
After the summer holidays it is restarting on September 10th with an increased membership, but there are still some spaces for girls and those who want to work on their own projects.
Founder and Chairman, Gwyn Garfield-Bennett said the club is expanding, ‘Thanks to a fantastic team of mentors we’ve been able to increase our numbers and reduce the waiting list, but I’m still keen to see more girls come along. We already have around six girls regularly attending, but with our digital future so important and with computer coding impacting on all of our lives, there should be more females preparing to enter the industry. If girls want to pop along and try it out they are welcome to contact me. We’re a very friendly, relaxed bunch.
‘We are also keen to encourage any older teens who might be working on their own projects to come along to the club where they can receive mentoring from our industry professionals. The club is a social meeting point for those who are interested in coding to meet like-minded friends, as well as for them to learn. We’d like it to be a hothouse for youngsters to develop their talents in a safe and age-appropriate environment.’
The club has three sub-groups, one is learning website development, another is working on games coding and a third electronics group will this term be learning to code with LilyPad development boards. Last term the website team developed the club’s own website: www.jerseycoders.com
Jersey Coders is registered with the Jersey Association of Charities and doesn’t charge any membership fee to enable it to be open to all islanders. It is sponsored by JT and Digital Jersey provide facilities for the club to meet. Many teens don’t have their own laptops to bring and so the club is also asking businesses in Jersey to donate secondhand laptops for members to use. In the past C5, BNP Paribas and FCJ school have donated machines but with the increased membership more are needed.
Teenagers in school years 7 and above who are interested in joining and anyone working in the digital industry who would like to share their skills and become a mentor, can contact Gwyn or visit the website www.jerseycoders.com
The club meets on a Wednesday evening in term time. All mentors will be required to have a CRB check which will be arranged by Jersey Coders.
