Computer Programming for Beginners

For aspiring programmers

Sorin Paun for PowerCoders

TWO OBJECTIVES

1. Learn the Basics of Coding

Challenge

The field of programming is vast. So vast that it seems stratospheric, untouchable. To add a layer to this complexity, each company uses their own work methodology and has preferences for the languages and software used. We know that wanting to know everything is illusory. So, what skills do you need to find your place in such a complex landscape?

This is a good question and the answer is not simple, everyone has their ideas. I often hear "you must know React is the most used" or "JavaScript is a must" or "PHP because you can do everything with WordPress". Sometimes we hear these mysterious names like "Django", "Jekyll", "Node", "Angular", "React" and so on. It looks like we're always late with the trends, there's always a new thing coming out, we feel marginalized and dusty, so how do we keep up?

Choosing a good "language" to learn programming

We wanted a user-friendly programming language for beginners, but not a "simplistic" language, it had to be "real". It must be popular and still relevant today. Very importantly, we must be able to use it without installing other software and it must work on all platforms. Which greatly reduces the list... Two candidates seem to suit our needs: JavaScript and Python.

We decided to use JavaScript. This is not the most powerful or flexible language, but it is certainly popular, quite relevant in 2019 and very good for exploring the concepts of programming. JavaScript is a C-style language and knowledge of a C-style language makes it easy to switch to other languages of the same family such as Java, PHP, Python, etc.

2. Find an internship

To do this you have to target a company, to study their profile and prepare a portfolio that is in line with this profile. The job is much simpler and more relevant if you know the needs of a company.

It's not an easy task to impress a company with your skills, they are not easily impressed! But, we'll do our best to resonate with their needs and to offer a good set of programming skills and motivation.

We'll share a document listing partner companies, with their profiles and their needs. These needs are defined by the companies themselves. Our students will study each one of them and choose to apply to a company who match their, let's say it, ideal workplace. We think this is a two-way street, both the company and the trainee must be in in complete agreement in order to have a good intership.

To achieve our goals

Our curriculum :

PowerCoders Lausanne - Curriculum

This program is quite ambitious but not unrealistic. We have studied the durations of each course and, based on our experience, we are quite confident that we will succeed in passing the content. Our success will depend to a large extent on the motivation of our students. We hope we'll be able to inspire them with our irresistible passion ❤ ❤ ❤ !

Contents by week :

1. CLI - GitHub - Web design
2. HTML5 / CSS - Advanced concepts
3. Programming 101 - JavaScript 1
4. Programming 101 - JavaScript 2
5. Programming 101 - JavaScript 3
6. JavaScript Libraries
7. Practical Programming - Frontend Libraries & JS Useful snippets + CAREER DAY
8. Career Week
9. Server Side & PHP
10. Data storage - Data Bases
11. PHP - CMS (Wordpress)
12. PHP - Frameworks (Laravel or more Wordpress)
13. Collaborative Week - Agile Scrum, Git for teams, Team projects

Typical weekdays:

Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays :

• Mornings: Courses - with Sorin Paun (Teach Lead)
  
• Afternoons: Practice and Portfolio work - coaching with James Smith (civilian servant) and our passionate volunteers and speakers

Wednesdays - Social & Business skills - with Coline Sauzet (Social Lead) & Magaly Mathys (Industry Lead)