The team at Amazon in Swindon is offering free coding lessons to classrooms and students in the town.

Children and teenagers aged from 11 to 16 years old will have access to the lessons in an attempt to remove the financial burden from school.

Turinglab is an online platform that teaches Python, one of the most widely used programming languages globally, in an engaging and accessible way for students.

The courses take learners from absolute beginners to understanding core concepts such as sequence, selection, iteration, functions and more.

“An understanding of technology is an essential life skill for young people – it helps to develop students’ independence, their critical thinking and problem-solving skills, as well as improving persistence, communication, and creativity,” said Lauren Kisser, Technology Director at Amazon and UK Ambassador for Amazon Future Engineer.

“But we know that not all schools have access to the resources needed to teach technology skills. By providing students in Swindon with free access to Turinglab’s fun, and engaging coding courses, we hope they gain the knowledge and confidence to prepare them for the future world of work.”