The reality is that every job is becoming a tech job nowadays. Even non-technical industries, like financial services, higher education, or government, are integrating technology and algorithms into their work.
Whether you manage marketers, analysts, salespeople, product managers, or other non-technical specialists, technical skills can help prepare your team for the future. Here are a few benefits of having your non-technical employees learn to code.
1. Provide your employees with development opportunities
Technology is advancing so fast that linear career paths are a thing of the past. Employees today are constantly trying new roles and learning new skills. The career ladder has been replaced with a desire for career experiences.
By providing your non-technical employees with a way to learn code, you give them the opportunity to advance in their current roles or uncover new areas they may have an interest in or aptitude for. This makes it more likely they’ll stay with your company as their professional goals evolve.
2. Improve communication within and across teams
Even if your non-technical team members don’t move into technical positions, coding skills can greatly enhance their current roles — especially when it comes to communication.
When roles like product managers or marketers have coding knowledge, they’re able to speak the same language as the engineers, developers, or customers they’re working with. Take it from Jessica, a product director at Paradox:
“I am in a very strategic and product-heavy role, and through learning with Codecademy (SQL in particular), I can now better communicate with clients on their reporting requests, speaking to what’s realistic technically and map those reporting needs to engineering.”
3. Build better products
By understanding what developers, engineers, and data scientists do, non-technical roles are in a better position to work with them to co-create solutions or products, ultimately benefiting the business. They can think through requirements more easily and better gauge what’s possible — and what’s not. This was a big benefit of learning to code for Calli, a product manager at Paradox:
“By learning to code, you’re able to ship higher-quality products. I’m able to think through problems in a different way than if I didn’t know how to pull data from SQL or know which language we’re using to make an animation display on a screen. You can think through requirements. If a client request comes in, I have a better understanding of whether or not we can do it. And if we can, how complicated is it?”
4. Instill confidence among your team
For non-technical employees working alongside their technically-trained counterparts, it’s possible for a bit of imposter syndrome to creep in. This was the case for Calli. She started out having no idea how code actually worked, but that eventually changed.
“Learning through Codecademy has strengthened my connections with other team members, clients’ technical specialists, and even leadership. [Working together] feels much more natural. I don’t feel like I’m faking it, I understand what they’re saying and what they’re asking.”
5. Enhance your team’s problem-solving skills
According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report, one of the top skills for 2025 will be problem solving. You might think of problem solving as a soft skill. Even so, it’s one that’s best practiced through learning to code. That’s because part of learning to code is learning how to think like a programmer: defining a problem, breaking it down into smaller pieces, and exploring various possible solutions.
Check out the following video with Stephanie, a software developer based in Baltimore, for more insight into what it means to “think like a programmer.”
6. Prepare your organization for the jobs of tomorrow
In the near future, it’s likely that the types of jobs your organization will need to fill will drastically change. The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2025, the time spent on current tasks at work by humans and machines will be equal. They also predict that this change will result in 97 million new roles globally — roles that will certainly benefit from knowledge of code.
Equipping your employees with coding skills prepares them for the future of work and gives leadership a greater opportunity to fill future talent gaps internally. Everyone wins!
Unlock the benefits of code for everyone
As our world grows more digital, learning to code isn’t just beneficial for programmers. It can empower non-technical teams to advance in their roles while paying off for the business at large.
Here at Codecademy, our online learning platform teaches coding skills in an accessible, flexible, and engaging way. Our interactive courses span dozens of languages and topics, ranging from data science to web development. And now, our new Codecademy for Teams offering lets you provide technical training and education to your employees. Have them try it out for free. Complete the form below learn more or request a 14-day free trial.
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