Over 215 youngsters graduate from “Code Camp” 2019

…as another batch of participants awarded

Some 215 youths in Guyana have so far graduated from the Public Telecommunications Ministry’s “Code Camp 2019”, as these computer coding and programming courses were held in Regions Three (Essequibo Islands- West Demerara) , Four (Demerara-Mahaica), Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and Ten (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
This was disclosed by Public Telecommunications Minister Cathy Hughes during a simple graduation ceremony on Saturday, which saw 25 youngsters from Georgetown receiving certificates of achievements and other special awards for their participation in the six-month programme.
Minister Hughes, in delivering opening remarks at the event, underscored that through the Ministry’s vision of embracing technology, this project was launched with the aim of training youths the basic skills in Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
“At the Ministry of Public Telecommunications and the Government itself, realised that in Guyana, we need to embrace technology more… so we’ve started this exacted plan and an important element of that plan is ensuring that we train our young people to be able to use technology….by the end of this afternoon, we would’ve had 215 young people that graduated just this weekend from this programme,” the Minister stated.
On this note, the Minister charged the graduates to use their newly-developed skills and with further training, contribute to transforming Guyana into a more technologically advanced country.
“Guyana is depending on all you young people to change this country and we have this new fabulous opportunity. Our vision is that we would be able to provide better services to the people and citizens of Guyana using technology. Young people that have the skills have a tremendous opportunity to provide services; you are naturally equipped, you young people understand the technology,” she asserted.
During the six-month period, the participants were exposed to writing code, as well as the introductory steps to computer programming, web design and some robotics. Coding is the introduction to writing and creating websites, ICT apps, and designing video games among others.
These coding camps are designed to expose and introduce young people to the world of technology, and cater for participants between the ages of 10 and 16 years.