Welcome

To take this course you must have completed Intro to Digital and received a micro-credential badge by email. Check your email. This badge is your ticket to access this course.

You will receive an email within two weeks of completing ITD, inviting you to begin this course as a Learner. All operational details should be linked in this email. If you have not received an email, please tell us at contact@codeyourfuture.io.

Log in to your Course Portal. This the same portal you used to complete ITD. A new set of steps should have appeared. These are the steps to complete ITP.

If you are all signed up and logged in, please now continue…

Writing information down helps you learn.

Writing helps you process what you’re reading more than just reading it. Keeping notes also gives you a reference you can check. It can also help you plan, and remember to come back to things.

The curriculum will often tell you to write something in your notebook. You can do this however you want - on paper in a physical notebook, in a Google Doc, in a specialised application like Obsidian, or however works for you.

We recommend you keep notes as you go through the course and learn.

You have joined us as a trainee. Your overall goal for this module is to understand how to succeed at the ITP course.

To demonstrate you know how to succeed at the course, you should apply to enrol as a Trainee within the next three weeks. To do this, you will need to do show up every week, learn, get work done, and get your work reviewed.

You should enrol as a Trainee within the next three weeks. If you do not enrol as a trainee by week 6 of this course, you will be removed from it. You can request to restart in the next ITP course.

🎯 Complete onboarding and enrol as a Trainee

Find the learning objectives for the text you are reading now. These are the goals for this text. This is what you should be able to do after completing this text.

Now find the learning objectives for Sprint 1 of the Onboarding module. We call these the “success criteria”. These are the goals for the first sprint of the module. This is what you should be able to do after completing Sprint 1.

This formal structure might be new to you. It is a way to help you evaluate for yourself whether you have achieved the goals of the module. If you have done (and can do) the things listed in the learning objectives, you have gained the skill. If you have not, you have not yet gained the skill, and should keep working at it.

As we are just meeting this idea, let’s go over them here too. The skills you’ll learn in this module are based around these themes: version control, requirements and testing, code review, data, and scientific method. Write each of these themes down in your notebook.

To complete the module, you will need to demonstrate you have learnt these skills, and apply to enrol as a Trainee.

Version control

By the end of this module you will have tracked changes to data (your code) over time with Git and GitHub. Your goal is to build a mental model of Git “trees” and begin learning ways to travel through files using the “time machine” of Git.

Requirements and Testing

By the end of this module you will have written code to solve specific problems and verified that it does what it is supposed to. Your goal is to interpret requirements and write code to meet acceptance criteria.

Code review

By the end of this module you will have revised, refactored, and reviewed code using code review. Your goal is to form the habits of a professional who can think, talk, and write in a technical context.

Scientific method

By the end of this module you will have written and asked well-structured developer questions. Your goal is to build a strategy to methodically solve problems.

Enrolment

By the end of this module you will have enrolled as a Trainee. Your goal is to complete the onboarding process and enrol as a Trainee.

Learners, we expect you to:

• Work in groups and individually, in class and during the week.
• Show up on time and participate in all activities, including helping others.
• Complete the work in the way it is specified.
• Do your best.

Learners, you can expect:

• Fair, achievable requirements, explained as clearly as possible.
• Help from volunteers and other learners with your questions and blockers.
• A safe, inclusive environment where you can learn and grow.
• Many opportunities to succeed.

We expect everyone to:

• Follow the Code of Conduct.
• Help each other.
• Do the prep.

Everyone at CYF has barriers to education. We can help with some things, and can recommend where to get help with others. Our signpost website has more details.

The support we can offer is around your ability to come to class, or follow the course material. We can support you financially with the following things for the first 5 weeks of ITP. In this time, we expect you to enroll as a trainee - after 5 weeks, we can only continue supporting enrolled trainees.

If you cannot come to an in-person class because you can’t afford:

🧒 Childcare

We can help you with childcare costs for the class and to study during the week. See our childcare expense policy for more details.

🚌 Bus or train tickets

We expect you to come to class every Saturday. We can help with travel costs if you need it. See our travel expense policy for details.

💻 Broadband

We can help you with data access if you need support with it. See our internet access expense policy for more details.

🥪 Food

It will always be provided in class.

💻 A computer

If you do not have access to a computer, or if you are worried your computer won’t be able to run everything needed during the course, we can lend you a laptop. Let us know as soon as possible if you need to borrow one.

We ask that you complete the onboarding module step before we enrol you as a Trainee. We are obliged to only enrol people we have a reasonable expectation of being able to complete the whole course. But predicting the future is a challenge! We have created this module to try to give as many people as possible a fair chance to show they can do this.

Double-check you have everything you need to start this course.

• You have completed ITD and received an invitation to join this course by email
• You have signed the Code of Conduct
• You have signed the Learner agreement sent to you by email
• You know how to get to class in person
• You have read and understood the success criteria

If you need help with any of these, ask in Slack or go to the Signposts website.

Now go read over the day plans, backlogs, success criteria and complete the quiz. You can do it! 🚀

Download and install the following software or register for the apps if you have not done so already.

Click on the links to go to the registration pages. Keep your login details for all sites/apps consistent and always use your real name.

Every time you create an account which can have a profile picture, you should set one up. Follow these professional image guidelines when picking an image. Use the same picture for every account.

Gmail, Google Account

Make a new Google account if you do not have a professional one already. What is a professional email address?

1. Use your real name.
2. Don’t use any numbers or words that are not your name.
3. Never put the year of your birth or age in your professional email address.

Your email address should look something like this:

GivenName_FamilyName@gmail.com

This is your public professional email address. Use it to sign up for all your professional accounts unless you can use your GitHub.

• I have made a professional Google account and Gmail address.
• I have explored the Google Suite, such as calendar, docs and spreadsheets.

GitHub

You will use GitHub to store your code and to collaborate with your peers. You have already made a GitHub account, but you need to check it is professional. You can change your username in your settings. You can add your professional email address in your settings too. (You can have more than one email address on your account.)

• My GitHub account shows my professional name
• I have added my professional email address to my GitHub account.

LinkedIn

Sign up for LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the largest professional social network. You will use it to help you get a job and to advance your career.

Make a LinkedIn account. Use your real name. Sign in with Google. Connect with your cohort.

Your cohort is your first network, and this is one of the most valuable things you can develop at CYF. A strong, tightly linked, professional network is a powerful asset, so begin building it today.

• I have made a LinkedIn account using my professional email address.
• I have used my real name.
• I have connected with my cohort.
• I am following CYF.

Slack

Slack is our community space and how we communicate with each other. Download and install it now. If you are not using your own computer, log in to the web version instead.

• I have downloaded the Slack app on my computer and phone.
• I have logged in to the CYF ITP workspace.
• I have found and joined my class channels.
• I have updated my profile with my picture, my professional email address, my GitHub username, my Linkedin profile, my region, and my cohort.
• I have introduced myself on Slack.

See this example fully filled-in Slack profile - make sure yours has at least the same fields filled on:

Applications

Google Chrome

• I have downloaded and installed Google Chrome.
• I have logged into my professional profile on Chrome.

Use your professional Chrome profile for all your CYF work. You will often have to share your screen during sessions, so keep your personal internet use private and away from your professional profile.

VSCode

We will use Visual Studio Code (VSCode), a customisable text editor you will use on this course and at work. If you are new to using tools like VSCode there are video resources which can help you familiarise yourself with the interface.

• I have downloaded and installed Visual Studio Code.

Zoom

Usually we use Meet, but sometimes we use Zoom for remote sessions. If you are using a library computer you can use the web version, if you are using your own computer you should install it now.

• I have downloaded and installed Zoom onto my computer.

Come on time when you’re learning

Many people give up their free time to teach us. They could be doing other things. We should respect this and always be on time.

Clean up after ourselves

Kind people let us use their space. We should keep it tidy and clean, just like our own homes.

Talk to each other (in English)

Put Slack on your phone and computer. Use it to ask for help and talk about classes. Speaking English helps everyone get better at it. Even if you know someone’s language, try to use English.

Learn to find answers yourself

We teach you how to look things up. Try to use Google to answer your own questions.

Use the computer yourself

Don’t let volunteers or peers type for you. Ask for help, but do the work yourself.

Help each other out

You’re all learning together. You can understand each other’s problems. Ask for help and offer it too. Explaining things to others helps you learn more.

We’re all part of this

This isn’t just a coding school. It’s for all of us - participants, trainees, volunteers. Try to make it better in any way you can.

You’ll need to create a CYF folder to store your projects on the course. It’s up to you how you organise your work, but we suggest having a sub-directory for each module and then for each sprint. You can create the folder using your system’s file explorer, or using the terminal app if you’re comfortable doing that.

Git

You will use Git continually as a developer. Before we can do any work with it we need to check that you have it installed.

Open your computer’s terminal application and run the command git --version to double check you have Git installed. If it is installed successfully, you should get a version number (which may not be exactly the same as this example, but should look similar):

git version 2.40.0

Otherwise, you will need to install it or ask for support on your Slack channel.

Imagine that two people are writing a blog. Ahmed and Naima are writing a blog together about their struggles learning coding.

The published blog is live here 👉 Educational blog

Ahmed and Naima are using the following development process for writing their blog:

• Writing the blog in a single file on a single computer
• Saving multiple versions of the file on the same computer
• Taking turns to use the computer during the day

At the moment, the computer has a folder with the blog that looks like this:

To improve their way of working, Ahmed and Naima realise they need the following:

• A way to both know what the most recent version is
• A way to know what the old versions were, and in what order (i.e. how they got to the current version, and what content they may have deleted that they may want to get back)

To manage the different versions of the blog project, they decide to use Git.

In Git, we create different versions of a project over time by creating commits.

A commit is a snapshot of our project at a particular point in time. You can also think of a commit as a particular version of a project.

Commits store the following information:

• what changed in this commit
• who created the change
• what time the change happened
• what the previous commit was

A typical timeline of commits might look like this:

Earlier on, Ahmed and Naima realised they also need a way to share the history of the project between different users and different computers.

To share a project and its history, we can use an online platform called GitHub

GitHub is a platform where teams can store projects along with a history of their different versions.

By storing projects on GitHub, multiple users can gain access to the history of a project.

We can use the Github interface to explore the different commits (versions) of a project too.

TODO:

• Explain that we can use Git through VSCode, but this is not the only way
• Step through process of linking the two

TODO:

• Initialise a repository in an empty folder
• Create a text file
• Add some content
• Screenshots of UI changes
• Make a commit
• Add more content
• Show changes in UI
• Make another commit
• Show history

TODO:

• Walk through process of creating a repo on GitHub

TODO:

• Add a remote in VSCode
• Push commits
• Explain that we can retrieve code from GitHub with git pull but leave example for a later module