[matthewowen]

I'm really uncomfortable with the term 'learning to code', because when I read it makes me think that the company wants its employees to know in what circumstances you should and shouldn't use semicolons in Javascript, or what methods are available to strings in Python.

I don't think those things are useful unless you're actually writing code.

What is useful is understanding how software (and, for a lot of people, web software in particular) fits together. That means understanding what might make something computationally expensive, or understanding the advantages/disadvantages of loosely coupled components (etc etc).

This isn't to say that people 'learning to code' isn't a step in the right direction, but I don't think it's an end in itself, and for most people, writing code is only a doorway to that understanding if they have the time to take on projects that involve those problems.

What we need isn't lots of people who can do 'hello world'. It is people who are technologically literate. That needs to be the focus and goal.

[rm445]

You would hope in the long term it would mean that everyone could write code that is relevant to their job, and automate tasks where possible.

I suspect this company is just trying to spread awareness throughout the company of what the coders do. But there must be countless efficiencies available in business, especially non-tech businesses, if people were able to automate.

If it were up to me, the aim would be to have secretaries and receptionists, sales staff and (non-software) engineers all able to write scripts to aid their work, in whatever language or environment was most relevant. Even if you start them off with Python tutorials so everyone can learn the basics together.

[sopooneo]

I hear you, but to take your apt analogy, I think the only way to understand software development is to go through the door of writing working code in some particular language. The goals may be bigger, but for people to get to them and understand them, they have to start by writing something, even if it's just "alert('hello world!')".