Coding camp powerhouse iDtech continues to make waves in Hong Kong

[Sponsored Article]

As technology continues to dramatically change the employment landscape, the most important language for children to learn in the near future might not be English or Mandarin, but the universal language of coding. 

Luckily for Hongkongers, iD Tech - the world’s leading coding summer camp provider for kids and teens aged 7-19 - is back to the city for a third straight year and they are offering a variety of classes with their partner institution, Koding Kingdom in Cyberport.  

“In the US, a lot of parents are finally starting to look at coding as core curriculum rather than an elective,” said Pete Ingram-Cauchi, iD Tech’s CEO for nearly twenty years. “I’m not sure if this is happening in Asia yet, but I assume it’s starting to, and we want to be a part of that.”

Ingram-Cauchi’s mother and sister founded iD Tech more than 20 years ago in Silicon Valley in the US; arguably the biggest, most innovative tech hub in the entire world. Now, as the company continues to expand, it hopes to bring the Silicon Valley mentality to cities like Hong Kong.

“Hong Kong was our first Asian city, and we have been growing substantially every year. This year we have more than 1000 students enrolled in our programmes, and our success in Hong Kong has allowed us to expand into Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea,” said Ingram-Cauchi, who added that outside the US and Asia, the company organizes camps in Europe as well.

According to Ingram-Cauchi, what separates the Silicon Valley and iD Tech mentality from that of other cities and companies is the attitude towards failure. While traditional curriculums like the DSE are very results-oriented, meaning failure is not an option; iD Tech looks at failure as a good thing. 

“We always say the more you fail, the more you learn,” Ingram-Cauchi said. “I think that’s the single biggest secret of succeeding in Silicon Valley – it’s the ability to fail, get back up and keep pushing, keep finding answers. Most CEOs in Silicon Valley aren’t taken seriously unless they have a couple of big failures under their belts.”

He went so far as to say the biggest failure a person or a company can have, is to was time worrying about failing.  “Once the fear of failure is gone, children are free to use their newfound coding skills to create,” he said.   

Another key to iDTech’s success is the company’s insistence on making sure classes are fun and enjoyable.

“Not many people think of coding as fun, and the subject can be dry if you teach if like everything else,” Ingram-Cauchi said. “If you’ve got a teacher standing in front of a whiteboard giving lectures, there’s a good chance the kids will lose interest. The most damage we can do is if a kid comes in with a very intensive immersive experience then afterward says: ‘I hate this and never want to do it again.’ That would be a colossal failure for us.”

iDTech understands that how much interest a child takes in coding early on can dramatically shape his/her future and, therefore, the company takes the responsibility of garnering young people’s interest in the subject very seriously.

“It’s a huge responsibility. We understand that a child’s spark of interest can happen very quickly, but that flame can be extinguished just as quickly,” Ingram-Cauchi said. “That’s why we want the kids to walk away thinking ‘oh my gosh I had no idea this is what coding was like’ and then be ready to take it to the next level. We want to start them on a lifelong journey.”

iD Tech is able to put on such fun classes thanks to its creative class themes – such as Video Game Design or App Development. In addition, Ingram-Cauchi said the company’s small class sizes play a huge role in fostering an intimate, flourishing work environment.

“We have ten kids in a class at most, which means there is constant feedback; kids are up and out of their seats all day long, going in and out of labs, it’s like organized chaos sometimes,” Ingram-Cauchi said. “But it brings the creativity out; the kids are giving each other feedback all the time, they’re all on their computer screens engaged all day long, and it almost has a sort of startup feel to it. There is always a lot of cross-pollination and collaboration going on.”

Of course, to be able to facilitate these types of classes, teachers must have tremendous coding expertise, while possessing the soft skills needed to make classes fun. That’s why iD Tech and Koding Kingdom both have incredibly strenuous hiring processes. 

“We source teachers locally from [The University of Hong Kong] and [The Chinese University of Hong Kong], but we also fly in staff from Silicon Valley and other big universities around the world,” Ingram-Cauchi said. “The teachers must be upbeat and enthusiastic and good with kids, but their technical skills matter too.”

iD Tech is, therefore, extremely selective about their hires. “We have one hire for every ten candidates,” Ingram-Cauchi said. “That is incredibly low for this industry, but it’s deliberate because we understand what a big responsibility teaching kids is, and our staff is very important.” 

Finally, Ingram-Cauchi added believes that one of the most responsible things a parent can do for their children’s future employment opportunities is to expose them to coding at an early age.

“I don’t necessarily think that coding is for everybody – we still need other skill sets,” Ingram-Cauchi admitted. “But I definitely think that a more significant proportion of students will start taking an interest if you expose it to them early on and at least give them a chance to see if it’s for them because if they enjoy it, it will open up all kinds of doors for them.

“Statistics say that 70 to 80 percent of jobs in the next 20 years haven’t been invented yet, and with the emergence of AI the amount of jobs that are going to be displaced is going to be massive,” he added. “So the ability to code and ‘speak the language’ if you will, I believe it’s vital.”