Several Saint Lucians are receiving modern computer-programming skills training via a twelve-week pilot computer coding workshop.

The workshop is the result of a partnership between the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development, and the Caribbean Science Foundation. It aims to increase student interest in science and engineering careers—especially that of computer science.

Curriculum Specialist for Technology and Integration, Mr. Germain Anthony, said the workshop serves to encourage the formation of more globally-competitive ICT companies.

“It really is a bit scary when you think about artificial intelligence, block chain technology, an internet of things, and realize that we have not participated in developing, producing nor manipulating those things,” Mr. Anthony said. “We cannot continue to just be consumers of the latest Samsung or iPhone, with no role to play in the development [of those gadgets].”

Cardinal Warde, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also serves as the Interim Director of the Caribbean Science Foundation. He encourages more young people to consider a career in the field.

“The big bucks is in computer science where you’re going to make life easy for lots of people by writing code that’s succinct, short, and powerful, using mathematical algorithms and tools to enable computers to do their job faster,” Mr. Warde said.

The pilot workshop, funded by the United States Embassy in Barbados, boasts 20 diverse participants spanning gender and age categories. Participants ages range from 16 to 40, while one third of the participants are female.