Why Barclays Code Playground?

Barclays – A History of Innovation

At Barclays, we’ve always prided ourselves on being leaders in innovation. We funded the world’s first industrial steam railway. We introduced the world’s first ATM machine. And the UK’s first credit card. We’ve always seen new technology as an opportunity to improve our customers’ lives.

Now, we want to share that enthusiasm. By joining forces with teachers, parents and students across the country, we’re using our experience and resources to support the computing curriculum and improve digital literacy. Together, we can raise digital natives who feel empowered to use technology to improve their own lives – and the communities in which they live and work

Barclays Digital Eagles

In 2013, we provided colleagues across our branches with Apple iPads to improve our customer experience. Unfortunately, some let us know they weren’t completely confident using the technology. We decided to change that.

We introduced our first Digital Eagles – with 18 brave colleagues joining us to pioneer the programme. Their mission was to spread their passion and enthusiasm for all things digital, help their colleagues become more confident, and help improve their digital skills. As the programme continued to grow, we decided to reach out to local communities to see how we could share our Digital Eagles’ passion with customers, organisations and charities.

In 2014, a skills gap report showed one million jobs would remain unfilled if young people didn’t learn programming skills. Thanks to reports like this, learning to code was added to the National Curriculum in schools across the UK. This seemed like an ideal opportunity for our Digital Eagles to get involved. And Code Playground was born!

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We’re here to give you the help and support you need. If you have a question, comment or suggestion about how we could do that better, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.