This year, 28 schools in Vilnius, Riga, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, and Rokiškis work together with CodeAcademy Kids. The private coding academy brings modern technologies and knowledge to public schools. In exchange, they get to hold their classes in rooms, which children are familiar and comfortable with.
According to Vita Kirkilienė, director of Vilnius Antakalnis gymnasium, collaboration with the academy helps their community stay informed about the innovations in technology education.
“Technology education is still not developed enough in Lithuania. It lacks a fast, effective, and versatile update of teachers’ knowledge so that they could transfer it to pupils. Through close collaboration with the academy’s teachers, not only the kids, but also our whole community gains knowledge about the newest information technology, such as virtual reality, robotics, app development,” says V. Kirkilienė.
In schools, CodeAcademy Kids organizes events, where the academy’s teachers tell children and teenagers about internet safety, career in the field of information technology (IT), the importance of coding skills, and other related matters.
Coding classes are held in IT cabinets of the schools, which CodeAcademy Kids helps modernize – from LEGO robots to interior design. For example, the academy updated the design, installed new lighting, new tables, chairs, and a flat-screen TV in an IT classroom of Vilnius Antakalnis gymnasium.
“We want not only to share knowledge, but also advance the environment in schools. A child first has to want to accept the information from resources which are given to them. And that depends on the learning environment and equipment as well. Having in mind that the public sector develops slower, since the establishment of the academy, we aim to find a sustainable model of collaboration which would allow us to combine our, private entity’s, and public sector’s competencies,” explains Aurelija Makselytė, the CEO of CodeAcademy Kids.
9 out of 10 partner schools in Vilnius are public.
In collaboration with schools in various locations in several cities, the academy enables pupils to learn coding closer to home. Also, the familiar environment of their schools helps children feel more comfortable.
CodeAcademy Kids was the first informal education organization to start collaborating with formal institutions. Now, more businesses operate using such model.