建網站和開發應用的編程課程在美國很走俏

Like many 10-year-olds, Nick Wald takes private lessons. His once-a-week tutor isn't helping him with piano scales or Spanish conjugations, but teaching him how to code.

與許多10歲大的孩子一樣，尼克·沃爾德(Nick Wald)也會在課外開小竈。不過，一週給他上一次課的家教爲他輔導的並非鋼琴音階和西班牙語的動詞變位，而是教他如何寫代碼。

Nick, a fifth-grader in New York, went in with no experience and has since learned enough HTML, JavaScript and CSS to build a simple website. He is now working in Apple's AAPL +0.97% XCode environment to finish an app named 'Clockie' that can be used to set alarms and reminders. He plans to offer it in the iOS App Store for free.

尼克是紐約一名五年級的學生，一開始他沒有任何經驗，自學寫代碼以來他學會了足以建一個簡單網站的HTML、JavaScript和CSS知識。目前他正在蘋果(Apple)的XCode環境下開發一款名爲“Clockie”、可用於設置鬧鐘和提醒事項的應用。他還打算在iOS應用商店免費提供這款應用。

'I always liked to get apps from the app store, and I always wanted to figure out how they worked and how I could develop it like that,' Nick says.

他說：“我一直都喜歡從應用商店獲取應用，而且我一直想弄明白它們是如何運行的以及我怎樣能開發出那樣的應用。”

As the ability to code, or use programming languages to build sites and apps, becomes more in demand, technical skills are no longer just for IT professionals. Children as young as 7 can take online classes in Scratch programming, while 20-somethings are filling up coding boot camps that promise to make them marketable in the tech sector. Businesses such as American Express Co. AXP -0.53% send senior executives to programs about data and computational design not so they can build websites, but so they can better manage the employees who do.

由於編程或使用編程語言來建網站和開發應用的能力越來越受歡迎，科技技能不再只是針對IT專業人士的要求。現在，只有七歲大的孩子也能學習Scratch編程網絡課程，20來歲的年輕人則擠滿了承諾讓他們成爲科技行業搶手人才的編程培訓班。美國運通(American Express)等企業還送高管去參加數據和電腦設計的培訓項目，這麼做的目的不是讓他們能建網站，而是讓他們能更好地管理從事此類工作的員工。

'I equate coding to reading and writing and basic literacy,' says Adam Enbar, founder of New York's Flatiron School, which offers 12-week, $12,000 programs to turn novices into developers. 'Not everyone needs to be Shakespeare, just as not everyone needs to be an amazing developer,' he says. ''re entering a world where every job if not already, will be technical.'

紐約Flatiron培訓學校的創始人亞當·恩巴爾(Adam Enbar)說：“我認爲編程好比讀寫和基本的文化素養。不是每個人都需要成爲莎士比亞，就如不是每個人都需要成爲了不起的開發者一樣。但是…我們正在邁入這樣的一個世界：每項工作即使現在還沒有做到科技化，將來也必將實現科技化，。”Flatiron學校提供爲期12周的課程，意在將新手培養爲開發者，學費爲12,000美元。

Programming languages vary in popularity and difficulty, and it takes hundreds of hours to become even a junior developer. But understanding what 'code' is and knowing what's possible and what's not, when working with an IT team, is generally more important than being able to make apps yourself.

編程語言的熱門度和難度各有不同，就算成爲一名初級開發者也需要學習幾百個小時。不過，在與一個IT團隊合作時，明白什麼是“代碼”以及瞭解什麼是可能的、什麼是不可能的，通常比能夠自己開發應用更重要。

The Younger Set

青少年培訓

Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth offers online courses in everything from essay writing to music theory, but Web-development classes have been 'a juggernaut in terms of level of interest,' says Patricia Wallace, senior director of CTY Online. The courses are geared toward elementary- and middle-school students. In 2009, 63 children signed up for Introduction to Web Design, one of the few coding classes then offered. This year, there are already 762 enrollments.

約翰·霍普金斯大學(Johns Hopkins University)精英學生學習中心(Center for Talented Youth)推出的網絡課程涵蓋從寫作到音樂理論的各類主題。但該中心網絡課程部門高級總監帕特里夏·華萊士(Patricia Wallace)稱，網頁開發課程一直是“極其受關注的大熱門”。這些課程的對象爲小學生與中學生。2009年，有63名學生報名學習《網頁設計入門》，這是當時開設的少數編程課程之一。今年該課程已招收了762名學生。

The classes, which began with Introduction to Web Design and soon may include Intermediate Scratch Programming, are growing because there aren't many opportunities to learn coding in elementary and middle school, says Ms. Wallace. Some parents want children to learn programming as early as possible.

華萊士稱，課程一開始教的是《網頁設計入門》，接下去可能很快就會教《中級Scratch編程》。由於在小學和中學學習編程的機會不多，此類班級的規模在不斷擴大。有些家長希望孩子儘早學習編程。

In-person coding programs for kids are springing up across the country. CoderDojo Twin Cities, a Minneapolis-based volunteer program, holds free, daylong coding programs. It has filled each of its 20 sessions with about 80 students since it launched in April. 'We've had to turn students away at every event,' says CoderDojo Twin Cities co-founder Matt Gray. The kids build games with Ruby, work with Linux, and-in one of the most popular programs-learn Python to build things in the world of Minecraft, a popular videogame.

針對兒童的面對面授課編程課程也在全美各地涌現出來。明尼阿波利斯的志願者計劃CoderDojo Twin Cities便提供連續一整天的免費編程培訓。自從在4月份啓動以來，該項目的20次課每次都擠滿了80名左右的學生。該計劃聯合創始人馬特·格雷(Matt Gray)說：“每次開課時我們都不得不拒絕一些學生。”孩子們使用Ruby開發遊戲，運用Linux系統，他們還學習Python語言來在熱門電子遊戲Minecraft的世界中造東西——這是最受孩子們歡迎的課程之一。

Another group has started in Rochester, Minn., and a girls-only camp, Katie CoderDojo, had its first session last month.

另一組已在明尼蘇達州的羅切斯特啓動，還有一個只限女孩參加的Katie CoderDojo訓練營也在2月份舉辦了第一次培訓。

The Job Seekers

求職者培訓

At a recent Web Development Immersive class offered by General Assembly, an education startup that offers coding and design courses, about 25 students-mostly men, mostly in their 20s and each with a MacBook-listened to a lecture on how to use JavaScript to add check boxes to pages. Previously, the students each had completed a project using coding language Ruby. One example: A website showed nearby restaurants' health ratings.

General Assembly爲一家提供編程和設計課程的初創教育機構，在其前不久開設的《沉浸式網頁開發》課堂上，大約25名年齡大多在20幾歲的學生（多數爲男生）每人配備一部MacBook，正在聽着如何使用JavaScript給頁面添加複選框的講課內容。在此之前，每名學生都使用Ruby編程語言完成了一個項目。其中一個項目是顯示周邊餐廳衛生評分的網站。

Alina Guzman, 23, recently paid the $11,500 tuition to take the 12-week course. She graduated from Baruch College in 2013 with a degree in digital marketing. 'I had worked in a marketing agency before and did stuff with a small-scale e-commerce website, but I wanted to do something different and I had always been interested in tech and websites,' she says.

今年23歲的阿林娜·古茲曼(Alina Guzman)前不久交了11,500美元學費參加爲期12周的課程。她在去年從柏魯克學院(Baruch College)畢業，並獲得了數字化營銷學位。她說：“我以前在一家營銷機構工作過，也在一家小型電商網站做過些事情，但是我想做些不同的工作，而且我一直對科技和網站感興趣。”

She took classes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays to learn Ruby and JavaScript. Two months after the course ended, she was hired as a junior engineer by New York-based startup Superhuman, which builds personal assistant applications.

她從週一到週五的上午九點到下午五點上課學習Ruby和JavaScript。在課程結束的兩個月後，她受聘成爲開發私人助理應用的紐約初創公司Superhuman的初級工程師。

General Assembly also has programs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Boston, Hong Kong and Sydney. According to a General Assembly spokeswoman, 95% of its students world-wide find jobs within three months.

General Assembly還在舊金山、洛杉磯、倫敦、波士頓、香港和悉尼開設課程。該公司一名女發言人稱，其全球學生中有95%的人在三個月內找到了工作。

Co-founder and CEO Jake Schwartz says that coding is important because it teaches a different way of thinking. 'Programming teaches logic, higher-level math and learning concepts that make you smarter and are useful no matter what,' he says.

該公司聯合創始人兼首席執行長傑克·施瓦茨(Jake Schwartz)稱，編程之所以重要，是因爲它教授了一種不同的思維方式。他說：“編程教給你邏輯、較高層次的數學和學習理念，它們讓你變得更聰明，無論在什麼方面都有用。”

The majority of students at Flatiron and General Assembly are between 20 and 30. Flatiron accepts 8% of its applicants.

Flatiron與General Assembly大多數的學生在20歲至30歲之間，其中Flatiron會接收8%的申請者。

'The vast majority of our students are those who, later in life, realize that this is a really interesting career and also one where there are a lot of jobs,' he says.

施瓦茨說：“我們絕大多數的學生都在日後的生活中意識到這是一個非常有趣的職業，也是一個就業機會很多的行業。”

James Vanneman, 27, was in the first class at Flatiron School. A former professional poker player, he had been teaching himself to code with books and websites. 'I'd get stuck and it'd get frustrating because I felt like I needed a place to get me over the hump of learning,' he says. A few weeks after graduating he was hired as a software engineer at Concierge Live, a ticket-management service.

今年27歲的詹姆斯·範內曼(James Vanneman)是Flatiron的首屆學生。他原來是一名職業撲克選手，之前一直通過書籍和網站自學編程。他說：“我會陷入困境，情況會變得令人沮喪，因爲我覺得我需要一個地方來幫助我跨越學習障礙。”他在畢業數週後在票務管理公司Concierge Live找到了一份軟件工程師的工作。

企業管理者培訓

The Corporate Managers

Even people who don't plan on becoming developers may hear at work that they ought to learn to code.

即使是無意成爲開發者的人，他們或許也會在工作中聽到他們應當學習編程。

American Express Co., General Electric Co. GE -0.54% , Staples Inc., SPLS -0.09% Merck & Co., Inc. and PepsiCo Inc. PEP +1.32% have worked with General Assembly, Mr. Schwartz says. These corporations have sent senior teams to two-day programs on topics such as Introduction to Big Data and Rapid Prototyping, also known as computer-aided design.

施瓦茨稱，美國運通、通用電氣(General Electric Co.)、史泰博(Staples Inc.)、默克(Merck & Co.)以及百事公司(PepsiCo)都是他們的合作伙伴。這些企業派遣了高管團隊參加爲期兩天的培訓，學習與《大數據入門》和《快速成型》（也被稱作電腦輔助設計）之類的主題有關的知識。

Summit Group, an Atlanta-based marketing company, has sent employees for the past three years to learn HTML 5 and basic Web development, says Jill Hood, Summit's director of strategic initiatives.

亞特蘭大營銷公司Summit Group的戰略計劃總監吉爾·胡德(Jill Hood)稱，過去三年間該公司都派出了員工去學習HTML 5語言和基礎的網頁開發。

'People learning these skills become more self-sufficient,' says Ms. Hood. Training employees in coding saves the company from having to use additional IT managers to help manage client accounts, she adds.

胡德稱：“學習了這些技能的人變得更能獨立工作了。”她還說，對員工進行編程培訓替公司節約了另僱IT管理員來管理客戶賬戶的花費。

, based in Carpinteria, Calif., sells online education videos on everything from Photoshop to JavaScript. Its customers include Patagonia Inc., Volkswagen Group +1.31% and Penguin Random House, says co-founder and executive chair Lynda Weinman.

加州卡平特里亞(Carpinteria)的銷售從Photoshop到 JavaScript的各類主題的網絡教學視頻。該網站聯合創始人兼執行董事長林達·溫曼(Lynda Weinman)稱，他們的客戶包括Patagonia、大衆集團(Volkswagen Group)和企鵝蘭登書屋(Penguin Random House)等。

Patagonia, the outdoor-gear retailer, will require its employees learn technical skills through in the next six months, says Ceci Saez, global director of organizational development. Half of Patagonia's 800 American employees have voluntarily taken courses through .

戶外裝備零售商Patagonia的企業發展全球總監切奇·賽斯(Ceci Saez)稱，該公司將要求員工在未來六個月中通過學習科技技能。Patagonia的800名美國員工中已有半數自願通過學習相關課程。賽斯說：“在過去，科技不是我們要經常去努力學習的東西，但是事情發生了變化。一羣不同的人加入了公司，現在它變得必要了。”