Teaching to learn

The training session Ismail volunteered for was part of a free training course in coding and software development. It continues Capgemini Morocco’s ongoing partnership with YouCode, a school that offers support to young students in the digital field and readies them for a career in technology.

Ismail’s session was attended by a diverse mix of students and school and college graduates. “It was meant to run for two hours for 20 people, but it proved very popular,” he says. “We ended up with 83 people participating, and we stayed for three hours.”

“To help the students learn about Angular, we took a learning-by-doing approach,” says Ismail. “We worked together to solve a ‘use case’ – an example of something that they might encounter in the real world. Later in the session, I also shared best practices based on real things I’ve been doing in my own work.”

As well as learning technical skills, Ismail says the session also encouraged teamwork.

“Collective intelligence is powerful,” he says. “When people come together to think collectively, they can solve problems quicker and innovate better. Innovation is a key skill in software development and when you are a developer you don’t work alone, you work as a team of people who all bring different skills. That means having soft skills such as leadership, teamwork, and critical thinking, as well as the technical skills for coding. One of the things I like best about Capgemini is that you work as a team. I used to play rugby, and at Capgemini we work together like a rugby team.”

Continuous learning

One of the most enjoyable aspects of being a software developer, Ismail says, is that you always have the opportunity to learn new skills.

“I really wanted to encourage the students in our session to have an attitude of continuous learning,” says Ismail. “Technology advances quickly, and what is normal today can be replaced with something better tomorrow. As a developer, you always need to keep up with change and continue to learn new skills. It’s good to know this from the start.”

Ultimately, he says, working in technology and software development is about solving problems.

“When someone comes to you with a problem and you apply your skills and experience to it and solve it, then that’s the best thing. Technology frees us to have space to think and innovate, which facilitates our lives and helps us solve problems for humanity. I think this is the main goal in what we do. We need to dream big, work hard, and innovate – and along with some technology skills, that’s what I wanted to pass on to the students.”

“Something I wanted to emphasize to the people in my session was that I was like them,” says Ismail. “I started from zero but have now have a career as a developer. Everyone is different and brings their own pasts with them. To progress in your career – or to make a better future – everyone faces in the same direction, but everyone takes a slightly different path to get there.”