Last week KPMG and the Refugee Talent Hub organized an introduction to coding course for approximately 25 participants. It was an elaborate and interesting course and even better: it did not end at the end of the course. Participants and teachers will get together in small groups in the upcoming weeks to make sure everybody has the chance to ask questions when the course progresses.

Why bother learning to code? This question was quickly answered in the plenary session. As we are working with computers more and more, it requires us to understand them. It’s crucial in innovation, and there is an increasingly higher demand of programmers in the job market.

During the training, ten experienced coding teachers from the technology department of KPMG were present to teach coding in small groups. I joined one of the small groups, ran by Quinn Blanco (one of the python teachers). Firstly, we watched a video of what to expect during the course. We learned about variables, sets, conditional statements, writing data and how to use pandas. Quinn: “Right now these are all strange words, but we will explain all of them to you”

Afterwards, it was time to get our hands dirty. We started coding in the edX practice platform. We started with the basics, but it got more challenging quickly. The energy in the small group was good and interactive. A lot of questions were asked, and Quinn answered all patiently.

In total, the course took four hours. That’s long, but because of the small interactive groups, it was useful. And not boring at all. Some small group sessions and a session hosted by the HR department of KPMG will follow. Looking forward!