We’ve written about Apps for Good before on the Tech City blog – this week, we hand over to Satwant Kenth, an Apps for Good Educator, to tell us about their forthcoming course which will give young people the opportunity to learn how to code their very own Facebook apps…

I’m really pleased to say there’s a new pilot course starting on the 15^th of May, giving young people the opportunity to learn how to make Facebook Apps. The first pilot occurred last year, and you can see how well it went here.

Copyright Alex Rumford

I’ll actually be teaching the session, but not that long ago I was a student on a previous Apps for Good course in 2010. So for me, it feels great to be able to give other young people the same opportunity I had, and actually be able to deliver a course I know I would love to be on myself and know I would have gained from.

There are a few reasons I’d recommend this course….

1) It’s nothing like school! I went to Uni to learn to code, and unfortunately I just didn’t get what I wanted out of it. You don’t get taught at Uni, you get lectured at. This was something I really didn’t take to, it wasn’t just me either. Pretty much everyone I knew felt the same way and just became disengaged because of it.

The Facebook-AppsforGood course is nothing like this! You’ll get taught what you need and you’ll get to apply it immediately with quite a bit of guidance too. You’ll also have the support of the students you’re working with and get to teach them too. I’ve seen students who have never done coding before, stand up and teach the whole class something new! By doing that, they’ve reinforced it for themselves as well as rephrased the learning in a way that a lecturer could never have done!

2) You get to dive right in! A lot of people love the idea of learning to make their ideas a reality, but in reality they never get the chance to, as they’re stuck having to read pages and pages of information. We’re not about that, you’ll hit the floor running and will be creating/coding within the first day! If you want some tips on how to be a good coder check this article out.

3)  Skills you won’t get anywhere else. One of the best things about the course is the skills we pass on that you just don’t get to learn in school. Skills like networking-I’m not talking about how to shake someone’s hand and smile. I’m talking about how to build a real connection and why people fail to do this. On our last course we even went to an event and demo-ed how to get someone’s card you wanted to do business with and how to follow it through! 

4) Facebook is Huge! I’d be crazy not to mention (and you’d be a hermit not to already know) that Facebook is growing and growing, and along with it are a massive amount of opportunities too. Although we’re in a recession, the tech industry is booming and you’ll get to understand why that is and how you can be a part of it.

5) Experts. This course has been developed with the help of leading organisations like Facebook and Techlightenment, with experts even visiting the course and giving personal advice on their own journey too. You’ll also get to pitch your group’s idea at the brand new Facebook headquarters in London! Apprentice..Dragons’ Den… Eat your heart out!

Oh and did I mention it’s free? Remember-apply now, the deadline is the 27^th

Apps for Good is the brainchild of non-profit organisation CDI Europe  (part of the CDI global network), in partnership with Dell and supported by people and businesses in the tech and creative world including O2, ThomsonReuters and Ogilvy.

During the Apps for Good course, students go through a kind of entrepreneurial process whereby they identify what is wrong with their world before designing a way of fixing it with a mobile app. We combine a broad range of areas in the course, giving young people a foundation in entrepreneurship, community involvement, problem-solving and team work, as well as design and some technical skills. Learn more about the course. Apps for Good develops talented and employable young people in an industry with plenty of room for creativity, prosperity and employment.

Satwant (aka Sat) was always keen to develop software that could change people’s lives for the better. He finally got that opportunity when he applied for Apps for Good in 2010. After successfully completing the course and creating the Stop and Search app, he went on to become an Educator for Apps for Good giving young people the same opportunity he was given. In 2011 he successfully completed teaching the first ever apps for good course in a school in central London, as well as project managed, created and taught the new Facebook-AppsforGood pilot course, and is now focusing on refining it. As well being an Educator for Apps for Good, Sat has recently worked with RIM to bring the Stop and Search app onto Blackberry App World and is designing and creating more innovative apps in his spare time.