Continuous learning and development is crucial to creating dynamic innovative teams.
In this article Alice King, Senior Consultant at Informed takes us through Code Gym – an informal hybrid training and social event that saw our people across all levels of specialism and experience come together to learn about coding in a creative, entertaining, and collaborative setting.
Working in a leading digital transformation practice, our people are always looking to innovate and find new ways to help people explore and develop skills and knowledge in the workplace, whether it be through buddying, mentoring, and coaching, or hosting masterclasses and training for all, regardless of experience.
Our mission and values closely align with our dedication to helping our people, partners and clients develop digital skills across all disciplines including user research, software development, business analysis, service management and geospatial; guiding them with their own personal career development and enabling us to deliver exceptional services.
Recently, Informed Solutions’ Software Development and Solution Architecture Community of Practice held a new, innovative skills development activity known as Informed Code Gym, an informal event allowing individuals across all levels of specialism and experience to learn or practice coding in a project agnostic environment.
The event started out with colleagues pairing-up or engaging in solo programming to solve a small, interesting problem such as generating the lyrics of a song in the least amount of code possible or building games such as ‘noughts and crosses’ and ‘tic-tac-toe’. Following some teamworking and experimentation, the teams then presented their solutions to the wider group, allowing their peers to offer any feedback or suggestions.
To demonstrate the success of the activity, most groups devised working prototypes using several approaches, across several different types of programming languages.
The event was a real success as it allowed those with significant experience in coding to share expertise with those who were keen to learn. Most importantly, the event allowed our people to have fun solving problems, whilst encouraging novice coders to develop their programming skills in an engaging, supportive, non-work environment where they could freely explore their interests.
We look forward to devising and holding further events where our people can develop new skills, whilst having fun along the way!