BJSS, the UK’s leading privately-owned IT and business consultancy, and winner of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise today announces its plan to expand its community investment partnership with Turinglab, an organisation dedicated to teaching fundamental coding skills to school children aged between 11 and 16.

The scheme which was introduced in 2018, has already seen over 300 children across London, Leeds, Bristol and Manchester participate in creative coding workshops. Through the partnership BJSS and Turinglab are expanding the scheme to Nottingham and Glasgow, delivering the programme to local schools that are identified as disadvantaged, underperforming or are an all-girls school. When fully delivered, BJSS will have sponsored over 400 children in an effort to encourage diversity in the technology industry.

Turinglab was founded by Sam Green and Henry Lake in 2015 with the aim of supporting schools and other educators to deliver foundational programming skills in a creative and inclusive way. Funded by BJSS, the school workshop programme teaches computing skills in a blended-learning environment, combining the best of online learning and in-person teaching to provide an engaging learning experience.

Workshops are led by industry professionals (from BJSS, Turinglab and Local Universities) who share their experience of the technology sector to help students and parents better understand career prospects, earning ability and the real applications of coding in the real world.

Stuart Bullock, Managing Director at BJSS, said: “Our community investment in Turinglab is a fantastic demonstration of how students and businesses are collaborating to address the current digital skills gap in the UK economy. We’re are excited to be able to expand our coding programme and help children from a diverse array of backgrounds learn more about technology and the career paths on offer, ensuring that they are not excluded from Britain’s digital future.”

Sam Green, Founder of Turinglab, said: “We are excited to continue growing our partnership with BJSS, enabling us to quadruple our reach over last year. Our core aims with the programme are to create excitement around pursuing a career in technology, and show students that coding can be accessible, creative and fun too! When participating in these workshops, I’m always humbled to see students discovering new ways of doing things, sharing this with their friends and realising not only that they could work in tech, but that they might want to!”

As part of the company’s award-winning CSR programme, BJSS also recently announced its sponsorship of the 'Digital Her: Inspire & Empower Roadshow' to expand its support in inspiring and empowering girls in Manchester to engage with STEM-related subjects.

The programme, launched by Manchester Digital, will be rolled out across Greater Manchester constituencies to inspire as many young women in the region into careers in the digital industry. The roadshow will educate school pupils on the opportunities available to them in the industry and provide them with practical experiences to help them make informed choices and expose them to industry role models.