Jim Taylor is Code4000’s Programmes Director and has been working with the GRC throughout their project.
When I first began planning this series of guest blogs alongside the lovely folks at the GRC I was a little sceptical about the content. As a bit of a fiction buff, I recognised the Hero’s Journey narrative, but I was a little dubious as to how it could be used to describe the learning journey of a Code4000 student. How a framework used to tell some of the world’s greatest stories could be used to frame the often tragic and futile circumstances that surround imprisonment.
However, after our wholly successful interview with Amanul and the framing of his experience as the different stages of the journey it began to make sense. Listening to Amanul’s story and reading the interpretations of that story by our guest bloggers, it became clear that perhaps the comparison between the heroes of fiction and Code4000’s students is not that far-fetched after all.
Coding is addictive, whether you’re a hobbyist like me, or one of the professionals with whom I regularly speak, pretty much everyone who codes say the same. It’s a bug (no coding pun intended!), and one that Code4000 students regularly catch. Visitors to our academies soon find out exactly what learning to code means to our learners. They are evangelical about their learning and love to discuss what they’ve learned, show people the projects they’ve built, and talk about how much they love to code.
I’ve worked in prisons for nearly a decade, and I’ve seen a lot of activities done very well but I’ve never quite seen people in prison take to a task as well as they do to learning to code. It is a transformative experience, it builds resilience, problem solving skills, and self-confidence. Furthermore, coding is a skill highly sought after by UK employers who regularly cite computer programmers as the role for which they find recruitment most difficult.
And it is with this transformation that our students find themselves at the Ultimate Prize stage of their Hero’s Journey; the point at which they reap the rewards for their hard work, determination, and introspection. The reward is different from student to student. Some use their newly learned skills to find work, or to setup their own business. Some use their time with Code4000 as something on which to base further learning. Others simply enjoy a new hobby. But all are changed by their experience on the programme.
But as in all great narratives, the hero isn’t the only one who gains from their experience. In all the best stories the rest of the world benefits too: the bad guy is defeated, peace is restored, and all is well with the world. And so it is for Code4000, its students, and its graduates. The reoffending rate in the United Kingdom is around 50%, nearly half of the people released from prison reoffend within a year of that release. Amongst Code4000 graduates, that figure is 0%. Learning to code in prison not only changes the lives of the students but it also has a broader, positive impact on society by reducing reoffending and keeping former prisoners from committing further crimes and returning to custody.
For Amanul, coding was both a means and an end, the method and the reward, and perhaps that’s why the Code4000 programme is so effective. It provided the incentive to “stay away from the negative stuff in prison”, offering an outlet for creativity and inspiration during his time there (to Amanul, coding is “like an art form”), while teaching the skills he eventually used to take his next big step onto the Code Your Future course when he was released.
Learning to code gave Amanul focus and drive, it gave him something to focus on during his time in prison that segued perfectly into his plans for release. However, Amanul also recognised that reaching his ultimate goal, that of employment in the tech sector, was not going to be easy, and it will be this stage of his journey, the Refusal of the Return, that I will discuss next week.
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