Accenture hosts underprivileged children for Hour of Code

ACCENTURE hosted over 50 underprivileged children from around Klang Valley for an Hour of Code at the JW Marriot Hotel recently. This annual Hour of Code initiative is part of Accenture’s team up with Code.org to support Hour of Code, a global educational movement that reaches over 100 million students through a one-hour introduction to computer science.

The focus on bringing coding skills to as many young people as possible is close to many of Accenture’s leaders.

In Malaysia, Accenture’s country managing director, Azwan Baharuddin, learnt to code at 10 years old and is a certified Java J2EE programmer. Paul Daugherty, Accenture’s chief technology & innovation officer and “Chief Coder,” also learned to code as a kid and was instantly hooked.

“As disruptive technologies advance and have a growing impact on society, a significant skills gap is also growing – so much so that already millions of jobs requiring STEM skills are unfilled worldwide,” said Daugherty.

“It is critical that we equip today’s students – tomorrow’s workforce — with not just these skills, but also an understanding of how they can harness creativity and innovation to improve the way the world works and lives.”

“Our passion to see the next generation be digitally literate is driven by the epic disruption we see across all industries in Malaysia. By learning to code, children will grow up understanding how humans and technology work together — an important first lesson in preparing for the future,” said Janet Yap (pic, right), technology delivery lead executive and managing director, Accenture.

“It is our privilege and responsibility to pass on the skills and hopefully inspire a whole new generation who will be future disruptors, and not themselves be disrupted. Hour of Code is a fantastic opportunity for Accenture volunteers to help to build  New Skills Now all over the world”

The 24 volunteers patiently walked each child through the tutorial and were rewarded by seeing the children’s faces light up when they ‘got it’ and saw the animated result of their successful coding.

Nearly 2,500 Accenture employees worldwide have committed to teach an hour of code at local events in their communities, helping to inspire more than 100,000 students around the world to learn coding and computer science skills.

Accenture built on the success of its launch of the Accenture Intelligent Space Exploration, a coding tutorial in which students discover how artificial intelligence (AI) techniques can be applied to teach a robot to explore a new planet — recognising animals and plants, understanding a new language, and conversing with inhabitants.

This round, the tutorial has been expanded to 15 languages — English, Chinese, Dutch, Filipino, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish and Vietnamese — to bring coding to more students around the world through lessons in their native languages.

Accenture’s global commitment to provide more opportunities for students to learn to code supports the company’s  Skills to Succeed corporate citizenship initiative, which addresses urgent workforce needs around the world — including preparing the next generation with the skills to work in the digital economy.