The saying goes, “children are the future.” And with a workforce that’s ever changing, learning the skills that will be needed in the future is becoming increasingly important – as can be seen in the recent push for more STEM education in schools.
To help bring up the next crop of coders and tech entrepreneurs, software learning center franchise Code Ninjas has opened its newest location in west Frisco, joining other locations across the Metroplex, including Southlake, McKinney, Coppell, and Lewisville.
“We picked West Frisco because it is a great location with lots of families,” David Agius, co-owner of the new branch told Culturemap Dallas.
Code Ninjas franchises are independently owned. The new west Frisco location was started by Agius, a Frisco resident, and other co-owner Steve Spadoni, who resides in Detroit. At Code Ninjas, students ages seven through 14 can learn Java Script, Lua and C# code languages from teachers called Code Senseis. Through two-hour per week sessions, chosen based on student’s individual schedules, kids get colored wristbands to mark their level of mastery, similar to a martial arts class. At the end of the program, students publish an app online.
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The coding school was launched in 2016 in Pearland, Tx. outside of Houston. In that time, Code Ninjas has opened more than 140 locations across the U.S. and Canada. In November 2019, the company announced that it had landed its first deal to open a school in the UK.
“The goal of our company overall is to share coding with kids of all backgrounds,” wrote David Graham, Code Ninjas CEO and co-founder, in a blog post. “Regardless of whether they’ve been open for a few months or even just a few weeks, there is one thing that ties them all together: they are all looking for new ways to reach their communities and impact the lives of more kids.”
While the hands-on, program-based curriculum is designed to teach coding, Graham believes Code Ninjas offers more to its students by fostering teamwork, logic and problem-solving – skills employees will need in the future marketplace. North Texas ranks fifth in the country as the largest tech employment hubs. In addition, DFW is on track to lose 30.2% of its jobs to automation, according to a report by Kempler Industries.
“I’ve seen how coding education improves lives,” wrote Graham in a statement on the Code Ninjas website. “Every child should have the opportunity to learn to code, and have a great time doing it."
