As a big supporter of the new curriculum, which is finally introducing programming skills into compulsory education from September 2014, DeveloperTech is all for any scheme which gives kids that same advantage from today; preventing them ending up on the “scrap heap”.

Milverton Wallace (MW), a man who’s been around development for a while, is launching one of these new schemes at “The North Library” in Holloway, London called “Wizzie Wizzie Coding Club”.

DeveloperTech (DT) caught up with him about why he believes his class is necessary for the future.

DT: Firstly, can you run us through a little of your background?

MW: I was a journalist working in newspapers and magazines in Jamaica, I came back in ’91 amidst the recession; when everything crashed. I ended up taking a job as a lecturer in a university on journalism where I spent 10 years.

It was just about the birth of the internet in this country; when people were just about beginning to hear about this “super highway” as they called it then. I started a conference called NetMedia to help journalists get to grips with this new thing. We were the biggest internet conference in Europe.

In 2010, I decided to start a Hackathon (Hackathon Central) because it’s a great platform for young developers and entrepreneurs.

DT: Can you tell me a little about the roots of the coding class?

MW: I stayed for a while around the States; particularly around California; but also New York – round lots of computing clubs in local communities. Then I went to Barcelona, a friend said “you have to go see this project, it will blow your mind.”

The district it’s in; is not a very nice district. Finally I decided to go, and it was a mind-blowing experience. A bunch of guys taken over a factory, fixed it up, got computers from companies around Spain, and started a kids coding club.

When I went upstairs, I looked down, and was like “there are 200 kids down there!”

So when I came back to London, I tried to get people at the BBC interested in coming back to Spain to get a proper report – but nobody was interested – it was pretty demoralising.

Out of the blue I got this email from this guy from Citilab (the name of the project) who asked “what is going on?” I decided I was going to run this coding club even if it was out of my own pocket.

The secretary of education came out with a statement which promised to include coding in the curriculum for 2014. That’s a good start, but it’s going to take a lot of time for the system to come up to speed to teach teachers how to teach coding – in the meantime – we have to fill the breach.

I’m going to base my coding club in a library; which is a public space. Any kid can walk in whatever their background; it’s a free space.

DT: What are your thoughts on whether programming is going to benefit the British economy going forward?

MW: In Shoreditch, London there are like 1400 companies there – not all of them are producing technology. About 7% of them are actually tech producing companies.

Yet it’s the fastest growing sector, in about five years time technology will overtake revenue of (other) companies in the UK – that’s really something.

In terms of the national economy I’d say it’s significant, and it’s going to increase.

Take a look at a kid now who’s 9/10/11/12… In six years time they are going to leave school with nothing, no training, who’s going to employ them? Where are you going to get your jobs from? Right now we need to get behind the kids at 8 to make sure they have a chance in this world.

Make them produce things; so they can either be employed, or start their own startups.

DT: It reminds me of the saying “Stop teaching our kids to be employees, start educating entrepreneurs.”

MW: We’re teaching them to be consumers. Teaching them how to use an Excel spreadsheet… what are you producing? What have you got to sell? Most people now have kind of accepted that. We need to move from consume, to produce.

Do you think teaching kids to code is a necessity in today’s world?

The “Wizzie Wizzie Computer Coding Class” is free to attend every Saturday – from 16 November 2013 through to 26 April 2014. All teachers are CRB checked.

For more details visit here.