London, UK – 24 September, 2015 – Samsung and Code Club are today opening a coding hub in the city-centre location of the Cardiff Central Library Hub to give children and adults in Cardiff access to digital training.
Deputy Minister for Culture, Ken Skates, officially opened the new hub and to mark National Coding Week, the hub was a hive of activity with adult coding sessions and the children of Tredegarville Primary School impressing the Deputy Minister with their digital skills.
The Co-founder of National Coding Week, Richard Rolfe also skyped into the launch to celebrate the official official opening, joining speeches from Peter Bradbury, Cabinet Member for Community Development, Co-operatives and Social Enterprise, and Chief Executive of the WEA Mark Isherwood. The hub will give all Cardiff’s residents access to the necessary facilities and resources needed to enjoy creative lessons in coding.
Code Club is a nationwide network of volunteer-led after school coding clubs for children across the UK. Samsung has been working with Code Club since 2013, including opening five hubs throughout the country, to support the aim of giving every child the opportunity to learn to code no matter where they are from. Code Club now has over 2,900 active UK clubs reaching over 50,000 children.
The Cardiff Central Library hub is the fourth coding hub in the UK following the first opening in London at the Dragon Hall community centre in Camden, the second in Manchester’s The Factory Youth Zone in Harpurhey and the third in Newcastle’s Blakelaw Neighbourhood Centre. The Library will be equipped with Samsung laptops to run weekly coding sessions with young people and also host four dedicated training sessions and events a year to train volunteers. These volunteers will then go on to offer thousands more hours of free coding sessions to children in the region.
Maria Quevedo, Director of Code Club UK, said, “Both Code Club and Samsung are passionate about giving young people from all backgrounds the chance to learn programming skills – we’re now living in a digital age where coding is useful in many hobbies and careers so it’s essential that access to programs like Code Club is fair. We’re delighted that the hub is opening at Cardiff Central Library as support for digital skills in the city – as shown by today’s event – has been amazing.”
Andy Griffiths, President of Samsung Electronics UK & Ireland, said: “During National Code Week, it’s fantastic to open Cardiff’s new coding hub in the Cardiff Central Library so that all the city’s residents have access to free coding lessons. We and our partner, Code Club are looking forward to seeing adults and children alike enjoying creative sessions on coding, a skill which is not only a fun hobby but an increasingly important requirement for careers in today’s digital world. It was a pleasure to have the Deputy Miniter of Culture officially open the hub today, which we hope will inspire a new generation of coders”.
