Bringing coding to more languages

Publication date: September 23, 2021

Computer science fosters innovation and critical thinking and empowers students with the skills to
create tools that solve major challenges. As noted in the seminal Informatics Europe report:
“informatics plays the same enabling role as mathematics and physics in previous industrial
revolutions.”

Yet, not enough students are being given the opportunity to develop the technical skills necessary
to allow them to be creators of innovative technologies. As the global pandemic has made
especially clear in the last 18 months, infrastructure challenges across Europe significantly limit
the number of students who learn computer science at school. This is particularly true for girls. In
fact, 80% of girls in European schools never or almost never learn coding at school.

In the context of our commitment to helping 10 million people and businesses in Europe, the
Middle East and Africa to find jobs, digitise and grow by the end of 2021, we want to help the next
generation thrive in this digital era. We also recognise the unprecedented challenge to education
and training systems created by the Covid-19 pandemic and the continuing need to ensure all
students and teachers have access to vital digital skills and economic opportunities.

This year, to make computer science education more accessible to students, we are excited to
support Europe Code Week 2021 by providing CS First Unplugged in 18 languages – a set of
engaging activities that can be used completely offline without a computer or internet access to
help students (ages 9-14) take their first step in learning about coding and how computer science
can connect us to friends and families. Here, you can find the booklets and lesson plans. In
addition, those looking for online coding activities can try out our Animate A Name lesson, an
easy-to-use and fun activity available in 21 European languages.
We invite everyone to try these resources and let us know what you think by emailing us at
europe-code-week@google.com. Happy Europe Code Week!

Verónica Gebhardt, Google CS Education Program Manager