Two holiday programmes with a difference launch in Te Puke and Katikati later this month, offering free coding programmes to eight to 13-year-olds.

Tauranga's Venture Centre is taking digital coding to the two towns on January 24 in Te Puke and January 25 in Katikati.

The two `taster' workshops at the Vector Group space in Te Puke and at Katikati college in collaboration with the Community Centre, aim to get kids started with code.

The two-hour sessions begin at 1pm and are a creative, fun way of learning, designed for girls and boys with some or no previous experience.

Venture Centre cofounder Jo Allum says it's all about ensuring that the next generation are enabled with digital tools and services, the skills to use them and knowledge of how to apply them to create value.

'At Venture Centre we believe in learning through doing. So if the young members of your family are great inventors, always coming up with bright ideas, we can teach them how to test those ideas in the same way any start-up or entrepreneur would,” says Jo.

'More and more, we, as a society, realise we don't know what the future of jobs is going to look like for our kids.

'The labour market is no longer something that can be managed by government and institutions.

'The future is uncertain and the attributes and competencies needed to thrive in it are multitudinous. So at Venture Centre we focus on learning of transferable skills - like coding and teamwork.”

Codebrite started in 2015 to encourage children into coding (computer science) and the discovery of problem solving through digital technology.

Venture Centre Director Pascale Hyboud-Peron says it's hoped that, through the workshops, local volunteers may step forward to start offering a coding club on a regular basis in each community.

'These workshops give children the chance to explore and develop digital skills not readily available at school. The kids also learn through experience and with peers. These conditions are pivotal to the world of work they will enter as they grow,” says Pascale.

Te Puke registration: https://www.businessaxis.nz/ltctastertp

Katikati registration: https://www.businessaxis.nz/ltctasterktkt

For more information visit: https://venturecentre.co.nz/blog/item/212-codebrite-returns-in-2018