Programming is no Longer for Programmers Only

For some years now, experts have been warning that programming is the language of the future.

“Just as mathematics is a universal language, so is programming. Machines ‘speak’ in programming and, in an increasingly digital world, we need to understand how to give orders to machines,  and how to programme them. Or, at least, we need to understand what many of our colleagues who do it do”, says Daniel González de Vega, co-founder of Smartick.

Carlos Casado, professor at the Faculty of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), gives an example in this article of how understanding how technology works can make it easier for us to relate to it. ‘We can use a car without knowing how it works. However, with a little knowledge of how it works, we may be able to know how to change a wheel or a light bulb, add water to the windscreen washer reservoir or know if the tyres are worn and need changing. We won’t be mechanics, but by taking the car to the mechanic we will be able to understand what he is telling us and communicate better with him,’ he says.

‘It’s a similar thing with programming. A little knowledge helps us to understand technology better and, for example, to better understand the person who explains to us how the programme we have to use in the company works,’ he adds.

What is the benefit of knowing how to code?

Being familiar with programming can be a great help in the workplace. ‘If a professional has knowledge of programming, it will help them, when they have to interact with a programmer, to share a common language and knowledge of the work involved in carrying out development tasks, what can be done and what can’t be done, etc. Also to know how to appreciate what other team members do. The same applies the other way around, as it is very advantageous for a programmer to have other knowledge outside his or her discipline,’ says Luis Calvo, head of the Front team at Paradigma Digital.

In addition, González de Vega stresses that understanding what is going to be asked of a program and how to give that order promotes a way of thinking that makes it necessary to have clear priorities, to synthesise and to be precise.

In this way, he highlights the importance of learning to program from an early age, as it brings many benefits to children. “It develops critical thinking and problem-solving skills, as programming teaches how to tackle large problems by breaking them down into a sequence of smaller, more manageable problems in any discipline. It also boosts creativity, since in programming, as in life, there is more than one way to solve a problem.”

In addition, he stresses that ‘it is basic literacy in the digital age’. ‘Children will be able to understand the world around them and acquire skills that are in high demand in the job market,’ he adds.

Essential in many sectors

Patricia Zamacola, Director of Technology at LHH Recruitment Solutions, a company of The Adecco Group, affirms that ‘programming is becoming increasingly important, and not only for programmers, but all professionals are likely to need it in their day-to-day work’.

There are many sectors in which having some knowledge of programming is very useful. ‘Programming can be a very useful tool in fields as diverse as economics or medicine, for example. Although we can assume that programming will be a necessary tool in any engineering field, in reality it can be important in almost any branch of knowledge,’ says Casado.

Likewise, Zamacola points out that ‘in the financial and risk analysis fields, it is increasingly necessary to understand what a data lake is, how a database works, how to launch a query, or how to set up an ETL’.

In fact, programming skills are starting to be taken into account when recruiting talent. ‘Business professionals who are able to handle themselves in technological environments, being able to use programming languages, become hybrid profiles that are very difficult to find in the market and with a very wide employability’, says the Technology Director of LHH Recruitment Solutions.

‘Nowadays, we are increasingly looking for profiles that are not only able to perform their work successfully, but are capable of managing several tasks in parallel, with different skills in both the technological and business areas. This makes it easier for business and IT teams to work together more effectively; to speak the same language, thus helping the real digital transformation”, he adds.

By virtue of his experience, Zamacola points out that “it is in the more analytical positions where this type of knowledge is most valued: financial, risk, research, marketing, graphic design, communication…”.

Thus, he indicates that “the sectors where this type of hybrid profile is most employable are banks, financial institutions, investment funds, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, call centres and strategic and technological consultancies”.

In a similar line, the co-founder of Smartick notes that “any aspect related to web programming or data analysis are already basic and fundamental”. “Data analytics has become a key skill in the sector’, he says.

That is why we are seeing the proliferation of so many degrees with the surname ‘data analytics’, because they can be used both for digital marketing and for medical research companies,” he explains.

In this article, Carles Garrigues, professor at the UOC’s Faculty of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications, also specifies some of the profiles for which programming skills will be increasingly important in the future. This is the case of professionals working in the biomedical field, where programming is used to organise, analyse and visualise huge amounts of biological data. This makes it possible to create phylogenetic trees to study the evolutionary relationship between two species, to find identical DNA regions in genomic sequences of different organisms, to search for specific mutations within a genomic sequence or to use genetic algorithms inspired by nature to optimise the resolution of standard problems, for example.

It will also be important in various branches of science – physics, statistics, mathematics, chemistry, chemical engineering – and architecture. Garrigues explains that these profiles can easily combine their mathematical knowledge with programming skills to develop tools to obtain, organise, clean, analyse and visualise data in order to extract knowledge.

Coding will also be of great use in the fields of business administration and management, economics and the social sciences, as the world can no longer be understood using traditional methods alone.

Finally, he highlights the growing importance of programming in design, where the community of artists already using programming and generative art technologies is growing. Garrigues stresses that the use of software for the design or creation of works allows the creation of large digital productions with a very high level of detail. He also points out that the use of this type of tool makes it easier to make changes to these works than with traditional methods, as only a few lines of code need to be modified.

AI, low/no code and open-source

On the other hand, we have to take into account that the way of programming is changing, thanks to AI, low/no code tools and open source software. “AI is going to make it increasingly easier for business professionals to access programming in a simpler way, allowing them to be self-sufficient in a job sector where technology is here to stay,” says Zamacola.

Likewise, González de Vega points out that ‘there are more and more educational initiatives and low-code or no-code technological tools that allow you to learn to program without being a real expert, or with open source software’.

“These tools make it possible, from an early age, to become familiar with concepts such as computational and creative thinking, to learn the logic of programming and to develop skills that allow them to understand both traditional programming and low-code solutions or applications.”

Calvo considers that “they are very useful for creating simple web developments because they do not require knowledge of programming, design, user experience or infrastructure”. “They offer a range of already developed components that can be used in a very simple way to create simple websites,” he says.

“They are useful for freelancers who want to show their portfolio to their clients or for small businesses that need a digital showroom without many pretensions. They are also useful for reducing time to market when putting simple projects into production,” he adds.

On the other hand, the Smartick co-founder argues that open-source software “allows for self-learning and collaborative approaches, learning from other developers to reduce the skills gap, adapt to current technologies or prepare for a scenario where companies are increasingly looking for efficiency and flexibility”.

“Its implementation is a very good option compared to proprietary or commercial software. Having been developed by a large team of non-profit developers, they tend to be built in a much more democratic way, offer functionality that genuinely provides value to users and, although they tend to be more austere in appearance, they are often more robust than their paid alternatives. However, their development is slower, because they tend not to have the funding that commercial software has, they tend to have worse technical support, although this is not always the case, and their creators run the risk of abandoning the development”, says the Paradigma Digital expert.

Boosting training in programming

If we want to respond to the growing need for professionals with programming skills in all sectors, it is essential to invest in training.

“Programming should be studied first and foremost in schools, where children, who are like sponges, would have a very fast adaptation and learning curve,” says the head of LHH Recruitment Solutions.

González de Vega agrees with her. ‘We consider it very important to develop initiatives to introduce coding from a very early age, so that children learn logic or computational thinking in a fun way and lay the foundations for more advanced programming concepts,” she says. An example of this is his Smartick Coding initiative.

He also points out that “there are more and more programmes such as bootcamps, specialised university courses or company initiatives such as Campus 42 from the Telefónica Foundation, which offers innovative and accessible training in programming”. “At Smartick we have graduates with this training and we have been able to see first-hand their excellent training,” he stresses.

Zamacola also stresses that “universities have to adapt their syllabuses to today’s reality, so training should increasingly be more hybrid, giving weight to technology and how it helps business”. He also believes that companies have a duty to train their employees to help them adapt to this new digital era.

On the other hand, the co-founder of Smartick says that “it is important to encourage funding for technology start-ups, which require many workers in the programming sector”. In this regard, he points out that “initiatives such as ENISA are key to help in the early years to get innovative projects off the ground”.

He also emphasised the need to “promote the inclusion of women, ethnic minorities and other under-represented groups in programming”.

For example, she highlights initiatives such as Technovation Girls in Spain and Girls Who Code in the United States, which are working to increase women’s participation in technology from an early age. For its part, Smartick has been organising camps for girls for several years to encourage their interest in STEM disciplines.

Finally, she insists on the importance of retraining workers. “Although the unemployment situation has improved in Spain, we can certainly continue to make progress in retraining many professionals who may be capable of programming with the right teachers and mentors. Google is doing a good job there,” he notes.