Europe and Africa code weeks: 136,000 students learn to code

Within the next 10 to 15 years, 90 percent of all jobs in Europe will require some level of technology education, and now is the time for the future workforce to start acquiring these skills. Computer Science (CS) programs all over the world are helping prepare students for the new global economy and helping them channel their excitement and passion into real world creations.

This October, we supported Europe Code Week,a movement started by the European Commission,for the sixth consecutive year, and Africa Code Week for the fourth consecutive year. In total, Google funded 88 education organizations in 41 countries, reaching a grand total of 136,000 students. 

This is part of our commitment to help one million Europeans grow their careers by the end of 2020 and to train 10 million Africans in digital skills by 2022 as part of Grow with Google. 

As our work with Europe Code Week shows, this support is making a difference. Here are just a few stories from among the 33 organizations we funded in 23 countries and through which 21,291 students learned CS.

Europe Code Week

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    The Netherlands: Stichting VHTO  taught 240 young women how to code during several events throughout the country. Women in tech volunteered to work with the students—they shared their skills and gave the students motivation to work hard and pursue their passion.  

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    Israel: More than 700 students took part in a one week programming workshop offered by our grant recipient, Loop. An 11-year-old student named Majd even used his skills to launch a “life simulator’ startup,” where people make important decisions via their virtual self and see the outcomes of their choices.


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    Poland: 570 students took part in Micro:bit, Makey Makey and Arduinoworkshops organized by Girls Code Fun in Warsaw. Some of the schools ordered their own Micro:bit sets so students can continue learning.

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    Italy: Due to high interest in programming workshops, our partner in Italy, Associazione DSchola, hosted activities in the cities of Torino and Cuneo for a total of 750 students. Students from both locations used video chat to work together on their projects. 

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    Croatia: The Croatian Robotic Association helped 300 students complete their first programming experience.

Africa Code Week 

In Africa, we joined forces with SAP and Africa Code Week to fund 55 organizations and grassroots groups across 18 countries. Over 115,000 students were able to explore CS through a variety of fun and interactive workshops. See some of their stories below.

  • Benin

    Benin: AISEC taught 695 students to create game applications using Scratch. 

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    Kenya: During Africa Code Week, youth coding bootcamp Eldohub organized three-hour workshops for 490 students across the North Rift, Western Region of Kenya. Students were introduced to Google’s CS First andScratch, among other coding languages.

  • Cameroon

    Cameroon: 490 students participated in hands-on CS workshops organized by the Institut Salomon.

  • South African girls

    South Africa: 1,000 young women participated in coding workshops organized by GirlCode.

  • Nigeria

    Nigeria: 1,300 students were trained in Scratch and CS First by Techquest STEM Academy.

We’re thrilled to help these students and teachers gain coding experience in Europe and Africa and look forward to inspiring even more students in 2020.