Last week the Parliamentary Digital Service had the pleasure of hosting codebar.
codebar is a non-profit initiative that facilitates the growth of a diverse tech community by running regular programming workshops. Workshops are open to women, LGBTQ and people who are underrepresented in the tech industry. The coaches are developers who volunteer their time. Students at codebar go to these workshops to learn from others with the guidance of the volunteer coaches. Students are encouraged to bring along their projects or to provide suggestions on what they would like to learn about and then they break into groups to start the learning.
Both Rebecca and I were students at codebar last year and then we moved into coaching once we became more experienced. We really wanted to be able to give back and really enjoy being a part of this initiative. We also feel that codebar’s values are in line with what the Parliamentary Digital Service are trying to do to increase diversity in technology. This was also a great opportunity for the Parliamentary Digital Service to tell developers out there about the work that we are doing in digital and to encourage codebar students to consider applying for vacancies with the Parliamentary Digital Service.
This is the first event of this type that we have hosted and we were pleasantly surprised at the positive and useful feedback we received from the students. This will definitely help us improve for future events.
Emma, Julie, Kheira, Berenice and Alix were all very helpful in organizing the event and the workshop went really well. We look forward to hosting another one soon. We also hope we have inspired other areas of the Parliamentary Digital Service to host events in their disciplines to promote learning and promote the great work we are doing at the moment.
If anyone wants to know more about codebar or how to go about organising an event like this, please get in contact