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2021 IT-Camp Summer Series Recap
“I really loved learning about the scripting, it was 1000 times better than school”, is just one quote from the numerous positive feedback we received from participants during our first virtual HTML Beginners course, which we conducted in English for children of SAP employees in South Africa. This course pilot was the kick-off of the 2021 IT-Camp summer series in July, followed by many more workshops until mid of September, where children within the age group from 8 – 18 years were able to participate and learn basics of several programming languages in a fun and entertaining environment. On each of the last course days, parents and siblings were invited to enjoy the presentation of their children’s project results.
As part of the Young Thinkers and University Alliances Team, the IT-Camps 4 Youngsters and it’s course offerings has seen an amazing development and steadily increasing interest. They became a well known as a highly appreciated opportunity to collect positive learning experiences during school holidays for the employee kids in Germany.
The idea to take the next step and open the program for employee children in other countries became a great spark, which was supported by the highly motivated engagement of De Wet Naude (SAP University Alliances & Next-Gen Country Manager Africa) and Bathandekile Boshoma (SAP Business Support Services EMEA & MEE).
Another very important and helpful pillar has been provided by a student from SAP Vocational Training who assisted the project with his Bachelor’s thesis. Through his comprehensive research we could benefit from insights we got out of well structured analysis, stakeholder interviews and market research. We have not only found the answer to "How can we bring IT-Camps 4 Youngsters to South Africa", but additionally received valuable strategic recommendations what can be done to support further growth and an international rollout in the future.
Great collaboration work has turned out to be the most successful ingredient which was key to convince the SAP Africa Executive Leadership Team to take over the sponsorship to build the key condition of the rollout.
Perception of an entertaining teaching style and creating a kind of team spirit atmosphere is crucial to provide a positive learning experience to participants. Our instructors Jan and Jakub have fully achieved this goal and established the desire for further IT camp offerings.
In addition, about 90% of participants confirmed they learned more than expected and provided best ratings for virtual concept and set-up, including the learning material, exercises and video instructions.
Get some more impressions from the IT-Camp pilot in South Africa reading the LinkedIn article.
