Supporting employees has been critical in 2020. Lenovo and TechData partnered with Hatch Coding to offer a family-friendly work perk, a chance for employee's kids to learn coding for free.

The pandemic has made us all re-examine the world around us, especially the importance of community, homebound activities, and creating good news to share. We already know it's a huge benefit for kids to learn foreign languages at a young age. Yet not many people know that this extends to learning computer languages as well. Even still, paying for something you're not sure your child will love can be a barrier for some parents considering coding education for their child.

Chris Fabes, Lenovo Canadian Channels Lead is bridging that gap by providing kids coding education as a workplace benefit. Chris shared, "By offering Hatch Coding we wanted to bridge the tech-skills gap while supporting our community with an innovative way of bringing people together, on a business and family level."

Coding Comradery & Friendly Competition

Parents from the Lenovo and TechData teams have seen thirty families come together to form a coding community. Their kids have been "Zooming" and "Hatching" weekly. Guided by our dedicated team of Hatch Coding Coaches, their kids have been getting to know each other and a new coding concept together each week. New joiners are welcomed by kids who have gained enough experience to provide answers alongside the Coaches. This gives everyone a chance to revisit "coding basics" when existing members get to teach newer kids what they've learned.

As with anything, regular practice helps to develop your muscles. Noticing new skills grow is an exciting part of being able to do what you couldn't do the day before! Kids celebrate this by viewing their progress on their personal dashboard, and the progress of friends on the leaderboard! Hatch Coding Coaches often hear kids ask "Who's at the top of our Team Leaderboard today?", it's sometimes a surprise to see who's climbing up to #1 as Most Valuable Coder...also known as "MVC"! With a student average calculated at 5,300 points on the Lenovo Team Leaderboard, one child's coding fire-power stands out in particular...

Johnnie (age 13) has a whopping 44,650 points! He's motivated to remain at #1 on the leaderboard, noting how close it is between the runners-up, Rio (age 11) with 34,450 points and Parker (age 8) with 29,200 points.

From the TechData Team Leaderboard, Matthew (age 12) is crushing it with 26,050 points - more than triple the points of anyone else on his team so far!

Coding Through Storytelling

Social learning is so important for kids. Hatch Coding Coaches bring a human element to coding by incorporating similes and metaphors that help kids understand new concepts: “Code reads like a book. We always start at the top with your first line and go downwards to read code like a story," says coach, Dylan. The Hatch Coding Coaches help kids visualize abstract concepts using everyday ideas; "You can think of coding a variable as storing something new in a box. Each box holds something different, so will need its own label to find and use what's inside later on."

Susanne Tamburro (Vendor Marketing Manager, TechData) mentioned this initiative has been a way of “providing good news to employees and to achieve a sense of togetherness during the pandemic."

Bring your workforce community together with the gift of coding by contacting the Hatch Coding Team today.