Canary Wharf Group (CWG), the UK-based property company which developed and owns the Canary Wharf financial district in London’s docklands, has agreed to provide financial sponsorship to Code Club, a nationwide network of volunteer-led, after-school coding clubs, for it to launch coding classes for approximately 600 primary school students in the local community of Tower Hamlets.
CWG will provide £50,000, covering up to 75% of the costs of the clubs in Tower Hamlets. In order to help find volunteers to teach in the clubs, CWG will put Code Club in contact with companies working in Level39, an accelerator space established by CWG in March 2013 and occupying the entire 39th floor of the iconic One Canada Square building. Level 39 – where CWG chose to announce its support for Code Club – is headed by Eric Van der Kleij, and focuses on finance, retail and future cities technology companies.
Sir George Iacobescu, chairman of Canary Wharf Group, said: “As Canary Wharf continues to grow, more businesses are looking for advanced IT skills. We are excited to launch this project, which will teach coding skills to local children. We are determined that local young people will get the best possible chance of securing jobs in this hugely exciting sector. This is one of a number of initiatives led by the company to help residents of the Tower Hamlets community into good and sustainable jobs.”
Code Club is a non-for-profit entity that organises coding classes for children between 9 and 11. Currently, there are 1,500 Code Clubs across the UK, with approximately 12 students in each.
“Learning to code is so important now we are in a digital age. As an organisation we are working hard to recruit enough volunteers to meet demand from schools,” said Clare Sutcliffe, co-founder and chief executive officer of Code Club.