City Council approves money for summer coding classes at Lawson State

The Birmingham City Council, at its regular meeting for Tuesday, May 22, approved a project funding agreement with Lawson State Community College that will allow students from the Birmingham City Schools to begin learning about the valuable 21st-century skill of coding at some summer workshops.

The city will provide $85,000 to pay for a series of four 4-day Swift Coding Boot Camps, to be held between June 18 and July 19, that will serve a total of 100 middle and high school students from the city.

The item passed as part of the council’s consent agenda.

The students will begin learning the basics of creating apps for iPhone and Android devices, according to Dr. Perry W. Ward, Lawson State president.

Ward said the initiative is modeled on the Everyone Can Code program in Chicago, a partnership between Apple and the city of Chicago.

Ward, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and other city leaders went to Chicago in April to learn more about Everyone Can Code and to meet with representatives of Apple to talk about a possible similar training partnership between the city and the computer giant.

“In order for us to become a globally competitive city, we must prepare our residents for the jobs of the future,” Woodfin said in a statement following the Chicago trip.

Lawson State already partners with Apple and is teaching coding, and Apple CEO Tim Cook visited the campus about two months ago, according to Ward.

Apple is also working with the Alabama Community College Association to develop a statewide program, Ward said.

Mayor Woodfin said in April that the city’s goal is to launch Everyone Can Code clubs throughout Birmingham in a public-private partnership with Apple and local organizations by fall 2018 and allow all students and adults to learn coding.