B.C. teachers are getting up to speed with coding.

During a two-day workshop at UBCO, teachers around the Okanagan/Shuswap learned techniques to better integrate coding into their districts.

91大黄鸭-Mission MLA Steve Thomson was in attendance, announcing the provincial government鈥檚 involvement. Schools in B.C. are now required to have coding and computational thinking in their .

鈥淐oding teaches children critical thinking skills to help them be successful in whatever path they choose. It鈥檚 really a core competency with all the new technology, so that鈥檚 why the government has provided funding support to bring it into the curriculum,鈥� said Thomson.

The government is funding the training sessions, with $6 million going into the coding initiative and $2 million invested in training programs, he said.

More than 40 teachers, school district employees and tech experts attended the session, Tuesday, Jan. 24.

Graham Johnson, tech consultant for the Central Okanagan school district, said he鈥檚 attending the event to learn how coding will be embedded in the curriculum and how the government鈥檚 funding will play out.

鈥淚 think coding is important in the schools because it鈥檚 one of those skills that students are definitely going to need down the road. One of the comments that was just made (at the workshop,) is there is a million lines of code (required in) order for you to get a Starbucks every morning.鈥�

Josh Vance is the technology and innovation coordinator for Vernon鈥檚 school district and attended the workshop to further his understanding of coding.

鈥淚 do work within that realm. There鈥檚 a real need for our teachers to learn more about this to provide more opportunities for our students. It鈥檚 almost approaching the level of our languages鈥� coding is starting to move up to that level where it鈥檚 a language that kids need to know to have success in our world,鈥� he said.

The workshop was presented by Lighthouse Labs and Kids Code Jeunesse.

Don Burks, head instructor with Lighthouse Labs, said the workshops are teaching teachers about computational thinking to prepare them to teach students.

鈥淭eachers are the way to get the message out,鈥� he said.

The UBCO workshop was the fourth workshop for teachers held in the province so far.