The UK is facing a severe shortage of workers with digital skills, such as computer coders, cybersecurity experts, and data analysts. These roles are in high demand.
This issue isn't limited to the UK. Globally, two-thirds of technology firms are struggling to find skilled workers, according to a recent report by recruitment firm Harvey Nash.
Their survey of 2,100 firms also revealed that the percentage of women in technology teams is increasing very slowly, currently at only 25%. Additionally, just 12% of top technology executives are women.
With these surprising statistics, I decided to explore how easy it would be for a woman in her 30s to learn to code in Python.
In case you're wondering, Python is a powerful, general-purpose programming language and is often the first language taught to undergraduates in computer science courses.
It's widely used in business—YouTube, for example, is largely written in Python.
Getting Started
Currently, if you want to learn to code, you can pay for a class, teach yourself using online resources, or find a community willing to help you for free.
I thought I might have an advantage since I taught myself languages used for building websites back in the early 2000s.
So, I assumed I could teach myself Python.
I first tried children's computing toys, hoping the goal of making robots move would keep me engaged and motivated. But I quickly realized I was in over my head—I had no idea how to use the software that came with the toys.
So, I switched tactics and tried Codecademy, a popular online platform that's free.
However, I found it intimidating. I was faced with an empty black prompt window that simply said, "Type Hello World."
To help me learn, I attended Teach the Nation to Code, a free one-day Python coding workshop run by the UK training firm, QA.