FIVE students from different walks of life are starting out their tertiary studies in Computing Sciences this year, following their introduction to coding by Tangible Africa.
The award-winning offline coding movement, an engagement project of the Nelson Mandela University Computing Sciences Department and the Leva Foundation, has for the past two years been gaining momentum at schools across the country.
Hosting coding tournaments, facilitating coding clubs, presenting at career days, and sharing the offline coding games (BOATS, TANKS and RANGERS) with as many people as possible by Tangible Africa have paid off – especially for these five young, bright minds who are now pursuing study paths in computer disciplines.
One man, Vela Njisane, 28, from Flagstaff had almost given up on his dream of further education ten years ago when he did not get the matric results he wanted. However, last year he went back to school to improve his matric results, and as fate would have it, this is where he got introduced to coding.
His school attended a Mandela Day coding tournament, which was hosted in Mqhekezweni last year. Tangible Africa’s interns assisted and guided Njisane to register for a BCom in Computer Science and Information Systems at Nelson Mandela University, and he got accepted to pursue the qualification this year.
“I am very motivated to do what I love – coding is my passion, and I would love to become an IT specialist. I was volunteering at a school before I decided to go back and start something new,” said Njisane.