Why Workers in Every Industry Need to Learn to Code

As the workforce evolves, workers are realizing that the skills they have traditionally relied on may no longer be enough and they will have to expand their toolkitBut are they ready to become amateur programmers?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the number of jobs for software developers, testers, and quality assurance analysts will grow by 25% between 2021 and 2031. That means more than 400,000 jobs will be added to the market over the next five to 10 years. It also means that investing in coding skills will become increasingly important for employees, regardless of their chosen field.

“Even going back 10 years, coding seemed like such a niche path,” says Ed Kim, vice president of education and training at the educational platform Code Ninjas. “But I think as technology has continued to evolve, there’s been an increased need for people who understand how technology connects to other business applications. And I think the barriers to entry into coding have gone down as a result.”

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Already, 58% of U.S. college students believe that coding skills are as important as knowing a foreign language for their future job prospects, according to a 2022 study by KX, a provider of data analytics and management software. More than 45% can currently code or are learning a coding language, and more than half of college students plan to learn a computer programming language at some point. And while coding is incredibly valuable for entering the growing technology marketthis isn’t the only sector benefiting from more people learning to code.

Coding, the process of creating instructions for a computer to perform a specific task, has traditionally been most useful in roles such as programming, software engineering, and UX design, which are still very popular. high demand for workers despite artificial intelligence automating certain aspects of the process. However, Kim argues that coding skills can also be useful for project managers, customer relationship managers and even teachers.

“(Coding) combines critical thinking and teaches a lot of problem-solving skills,” he says. “For any company where employees have to deal with any set of problems or business needs, understanding how coding works is a good exercise and a skill that helps people break down concepts in a simpler way.”

Even if there is no immediate professional reason to invest in some form of certification or coding courses, a proactive approach could help in isolating employees as the labor market changesaccording to Kim.

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“It’s less about being so niche that you’re only good for one specific job, and more about becoming a jack of all trades,” he says. “Learning to integrate your skills with other areas and understanding how finance works, how technical operations works, how marketing works, so that you can better support those functions in your role, makes you more useful to the organization.”

Although it is still too early to say whether coding will become common required skillKim calls on workers of all ages to or improve the qualifications of yourself or even your children if they are able.

“There will always be certain paths where you need a niche specialist who can dive really deep into code, and companies will have to hire an expert for that,” he says. “But having a general understanding of interviewing and being able to bring that skill set and that mindset is going to be super important as an employee now and in the future.”