This week I visited Greenhill Primary School for their weekly Coding Club, set up by Lloyds Bank to teach children the basics of programming. They use an interactive tool called Switch, and program in commands to build up an animation using characters on screen.

I know from my time as Shadow Digital Economy Minister how important it is to be teaching digital skills from an early age, and it’s great to see how engaged the children here have become – particularly girls, who have historically been underrepresented in tech industries.

These are skills that are fun to learn now, but will go on to be really important when they go on to jobs or university in the next decade. With the Fourth Industrial Revolution underway, our future prosperity and many of their job prospects will depend on having these important digital skills.

The example being set here is really positive and I’d encourage other schools in Sheffield to look into teaching digital skills like programming too.