To be able to compete with other economies, all school children in the Netherlands should learn to code. In Amsterdam, former vice president of the European Commission Neelie Kroes launched CodePact today, an initiative set to teach 400,000 Dutch children programming skills. By signing the manifest, businesses and the government agree to work together to prepare students in primary and high school for the employment market of tomorrow. Microsoft was amongst the first companies to sign the CodePact.
CodePact’s mission is to digitally empower Dutch children. To prepare them for the future, they should be able to grow into powerful and independent thinkers by teaching them how to program. “The Dutch labor market has an enormous shortage of talented programmers,” Kroes stated. “As a result, startups and other companies have trouble finding the right talent they need to grow. CodePact can make a difference, by teaching 400,000 children how to code.”
By teaching them programming skills at an early age, CodePact aims to create a pool of talents that are ready for a future, where everyone – car mechanics and app builders alike – will be required to have programming knowledge. Various Dutch governmental organizations and tech companies, including Microsoft, signed the pact, committing themselves to developing the digital skills of Dutch school children.
Follow the discussion on Twitter using the hashtag #CodePact
