Why we teach both children and adults?

There are many things that make codetoday unique. One of them is that we offer courses for both adults and children.

Coding is one of very few subjects where adult beginners and children beginners start from the same point. There are many similarities between how we teach adults and children, but also many differences. But without any doubt, our experience with teaching children to code contributes very positively to our courses for adults. And vice versa.

Our approach to teaching coding is based on making sure the fundamentals are understood thoroughly, building on these as we move onto more advanced topics. The adult and children curricula mirror each other.

In both instances, learning happens through a very practical approach using projects ranging from writing animations and creating games to analysing financial data and creating statistical models. The diversity of projects is important so as to give a broad perspective of programming. This makes our students more versatile and more capable of tackling a wide range of problems efficiently. That's why sometimes we may get adult students to work on a game as a break from other work, and we introduce topics such as data analysis and scientific coding to children. This is especially true for teenagers in their GCSE and A' Level years who are ready to work on some projects we use in our adult courses; these merge programming with other subjects they are studying such as physics and maths.

What about our teaching style and methods?

A robust curriculum and great projects only take you so far. Being able to communicate what are often abstract concepts effectively and clearly is just as important. Codetoday's programme team and instructors are constantly working on and refining analogies and other ways of communicating programming topics so that our students truly understand what's going on. And being able to clearly explain concepts to children means that we do not fall into the trap that many 'experts' fall into when explaining things: assuming the audience are understanding every word the lecturer says; all the jargon and all the concepts right away (we have all had University lecturers that fit this description after all).

Our ability to explain concepts in a simple yet thorough manner is one of our strengths both when teaching children and adults.

Our core programme development team, as well as many of our instructors, come from programming, science and maths backgrounds. This is key to both our adult and children programmes.

Our adult courses are aimed at those who wish to add coding as an additional skill to use in their existing work, including data-driven fields. Coding knowledge alone is not enough to be able to deliver courses in programming for quantitative fields.

Our team's expertise is also very important for our children's division. Our courses for children stay well clear of gimmicky approaches sometimes seen elsewhere and focus on coding as a serious academic subject. This includes using examples from maths and science in our teaching which makes the projects very relevant to students.

Although the style, pace and scope of our courses for children and adults is different, the flow of ideas, resources and projects from one to the other enriches our courses across our entire company.

Learn more about our courses for children and adults, click below.