The government has realised the importance of teaching children basic computer skills and IT service skills.The change in attitude came after a very successful campaign which showed how useful programming skills would be in the future, compared to the current teaching structure which is considered outdated and boring.Code Club will be targeted at children aged 10- 11 and is a planned after- school club which will be run by volunteers. These volunteers will be the ones to run the Club rather than teachers. The Club is still in its early stages of planning but will complement the curriculum changes and help train children to become computer programmers instead of secretaries, a criticism of the current curriculum.The Club Code lessons will be based on the IT product designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's, the Scratch tool, which lets children try their hand at programming. This program targets children aged 12 and up so the Club Code is taking aspects of Scratch and modelling the Club Code around this. There are several Schools who have already agreed to take part ina trail of the club, the first 12 lessons will be free to children who want to have a go.Club Code also plans to act as an advice centre for others who want to set up clubs in their local schools and give support in convincing the Head Teachers and Parent- teacher Associations to agree.
