One of my aims as a 2023 SSI fellow is to contribute to the software and data community locally – in Edinburgh and Scotland. As part of this work, I have become a co-organiser of the Edinburgh chapter of codebar. Codebar is an international organisation working “to enable minority group members to learn programming in a safe and collaborative environment and expand their career opportunities.” The format of a typical codebar workshop is an hour of networking over pizza and drinks, followed by 2 hours of pair programming, where each learner is paired with an experienced coach. The workshops are usually hosted by local tech companies, who provide the space and involve their staff members, providing opportunities for the learners to meet people working at that company and make connections that way.

The September 2023 workshop was held at the premises of CodeBar Edinburgh – a coding bootcamp provider that was vital to Scotland’s digital skills development, but unfortunately went into liquidation earlier this year. It was the largest workshop since the Covid-19 pandemic, with 13 students and 11 coaches in attendance. I personally was working with a university student who will be using R for her dissertation and was looking for a refresher on using R and running linear mixed effect models. Other coaches were helping learners progress their projects in JavaScript, Python and SQL. Some learners were looking to enhance their portfolios in preparation for job hunting, some had large projects that they had been working on for months, others were complete beginners looking to start their adventure with coding by learning the basics of Python. Regardless of their experience level, each learner got personalised support and was able to make good progress over the course of the 2 hours.

Codebar coaches come primarily from the commercial tech industry, but some are academics or research software engineers. In the Edinburgh chapter, we have about a 50/50 split of coaches: half have a formal computer science or related background, and the other half are graduates of coding bootcamps.

There are codebar chapters around the world, and they are always looking for enthusiastic coaches. There is even a virtual codebar, which you can join from the comfort of your home, anywhere in the world. You don’t need teaching experience to join in – all we are looking for is a positive attitude towards other people and some technical experience in at least one programming language (you can specify your skills when you join in). The organisers then ensure that each learner is paired with a coach who can help them with the project at hand. If you would like to join in (as a coach or as a learner), have a look at www.codebar.io for more information and the joining form (you’ll need a GitHub account to register).