Monster.co.uk today announced that they are the official recruitment partner of this year’s Festival of Code, the world’s largest hackathon for young people. The event, run by Young Rewired State, will take place between 27th July and 2nd August in 66 centres across the UK.
During a week-long celebration, thousands of children between the ages of five and eighteen will take part in using an open data source to build digital hardware and software projects. The festival will come to a climax at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham, where up to 2,000 young coders will present what they’ve made in a celebratory weekend showcase.
Monster’s sponsorship of the Festival is one of several initiatives this year to raise awareness of the digital skills gap and their Girls in Coding campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the importance of young girls and women embracing careers in technology, a critical enabler to encourage and develop the tech talent needed to fill the digital skills gap shortage.
As part of the partnership, and to highlight their commitment to inspire young people to embrace digital skills, Monster has created a bespoke task which reflects this. They will be asking young coders to design, and make, a tech solution which encourages people under 18 to learn to code through peer to peer learning for a chance to win a drone.
Monster.co.uk, Marketing Director UK and Ireland, Sinead Bunting, will also be involved in the judging process for the Monocle Ruby group festival entries, sitting alongside other leading industry figures, such as Nick Halliday and Bill Thompson, to select the winners.
She comments: “We are thrilled to be the recruitment partner for this year’s Festival of Code and look forward to another record attendance of enthusiastic young coders.
“Here at Monster we’re really passionate about helping the future workforce to get excited about coding and other digital skills so they view these as the rewarding and varied career opportunities they are. There is no doubt that the UK is facing a digital skills gap, which is why events such as the Festival of Code are crucial in engaging young people on tech talent from an early age.
We’re really looking forward to watching all the young talented coders hard at work and are excited to see what creative and innovative products they produce in response to not only our specific set challenge, but all the briefs.”
To attend the Festival of Code or to find further information, please visit: http://festival.yrs.io/