Metro Bank has held a series of tech workshops for primary school children from the most deprived parts of London.
The brainchild of the bank’s engineering and transformation team led by CIO Faisal Hussain, Metro ran 16 sessions with employees volunteering to attend the seven participating schools to teach the children basic coding skills using micro:bit.
The micro:bit was originally created as part of the BBC’s Make It Digital initiative. They are tiny computers that have various sensors and capabilities like buttons, LEDs, light sensor, temperature sensor, microphone, compass, accelerometer, speaker, radio and pins to connect to other devices or extensions.
Says Hussain: "As a community bank, we wanted to inspire the next generation - especially kids who may not have easy access to tech - to consider working in this field. Our ultimate aim is to create future engineers by generating excitement about careers in engineering and wider tech through awesome tech role models - namely our colleagues.
The programme, called Tech Zone, is set to be expanded next year and could make its way to branches, where Metro already offers a financial education programme for young kids called Money Zone.