Breaking the code

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Many economic development professionals argue that building a diverse, well-trained workforce is critical to a city’s vitality.

No company can afford to operate in a community that lacks enough workers with the skills it needs, and Birmingham’s no exception, according to Josh Carpenter, the city’s director of economic development. 

“We don’t have the workforce we need to have the economy we want,” Carpenter said. “That economy is developed once we have the type of knowledge worker that has the dynamic skills that create jobs.”

Community colleges, such as Jefferson State Community College and Lawson State Community College, play a big part in job training. For example, Lawson State trains students in such careers as auto repair, manufacturing and the restaurant business. And the school’s now trying to help students prepare for the technology jobs of the future.

In January, Lawson State began offering coding classes — part of Apple’s nationwide “Everyone Can Code” initiative — and provides certification training through the Swift App Development Program.

Tim Cook, an Alabama native, Auburn University alumnus and Apple’s CEO, even visited the campus in April.

“Learning to code is important to ensure students of all ages can be ready for the growing number of technology jobs available in Birmingham,” Lawson State President Perry Ward said.

In June and July, Lawson State also hosted four coding bootcamps for 100 middle and high school students from Birmingham City Schools. The sessions were the first part of the new “Birmingham Can Code” initiative, a partnership between Lawson State, the schools and the city.

The program is still in its formative stages but will seek to make access to training in what Cook has called “an essential skill” for the 21st century widely available to students and other Birmingham residents.

In April, Mayor Randall Woodfin and other officials, including Ward, visited Chicago to learn about that city’s partnership with Apple, which reaches 500,000 students.

“I believe a public-private partnership between Apple, the city of Birmingham and our partners is the key to unlocking local collaboration around education, technology, job training and job opportunities,” Woodfin said in a statement. 

Woodfin said in April the city’s goal was to launch coding clubs throughout Birmingham by fall 2018 and allow all students and adults to learn coding.

“This is a 21st century vocational training program,’’ Birmingham City Schools Superintendent Lisa Herring said in April.

In May, the Birmingham City Council voted to provide $85,000 for the bootcamps at Lawson State.

During one of the middle school sessions in June at the Ward Building at Lawson State, more than 20 eager students worked with iPads. Some programmed small, wheeled drones to scoot around the classroom. Some learned basic coding concepts as they tried to solve a puzzle, part of the game-based Swift Playground.

Ryan Reese, age 11, from Phillips Academy, showed off the code he wrote to move a blue animated figure named Byte through a portal to collect a gem. Reese wants to be a software engineer.

“If there’s something wrong with the process, it’s called a bug, and when you try to fix it, it’s called debugging,” Reese said.

Donovan Frazier, age 13, also from Phillips Academy, said he wants to major in computer science in college.

Frazier tried to study coding before, but the resources he found “were really long and tedious,” he said.

In contrast, with Swift, Apple “put it into a game to make it easier,” Frazier said.

“This [bootcamp] can really help me, because now I know that it’s not that hard,” Frazier said.  “It’s really easy to understand, so I will probably continue whenever I get at home on my computer.”

Kamora Porter, age 14, a rising freshman at Ramsay High School, thinks a knowledge of coding and computing can only help her in her plans to become an engineer.

Like Frazer, Porter plans to keep working on coding. “I’ll try to download this app and work on my skills,” she said.

Lawson staffer and instructor Eula Todd said Apple didn’t write Swift using the complex jargon of computing. “It uses the language they speak everyday, and they can take that and create code,” Todd said.

The Swift environment is “interactive, kind of fun,” she said.

The middle and high school bootcamps are different, according to Todd. Middle schoolers learn the basic concepts of coding and develop a prototype for an app using a program similar to PowerPoint. The high school students use the program Xcode and begin developing an actual app.

Bruce Crawford, vice president for instructional services at Lawson State, described the origins of the coding classes that are now part of the school’s regular curriculum.

“There is a shortage of IT professionals in this area,” he said.

Alabama Community College System officials had also met with Apple regarding a coding program, and Lawson State “had the infrastructure in place and the appropriate facilities to handle the coding curriculum,” Crawford said. The school now has three classrooms equipped with Mac laptops, and is able to provide iPads to students, as well.

“Soon, we expect to be able to deliver that service on-site at various schools, community centers and libraries,” Crawford said.

In the spring, Lawson offered three coding sections with a total of 83 students, including 10 dual-enrollment high school students. The classes have lots of benefits for students, according to Crawford.

“It not only helps them in developing potential career options, but it helps with problem solving, critical skills and communication skills,” he said. “The skills learned in this environment are transferable in to any work environment.”

Lawson State will offer three coding classes for the fall, including app programming language and app development, and can accommodate up to 100 students, according to Crawford.