From Coding Clubs to Rockets: Why Europe's Future Starts Young

Recently, my son travelled to Portugal with around forty fellow students to represent Ghent University at the European Rocketry Challenge as part of Team Antares. There, they competed against university teams from across Europe, each showcasing rockets they had designed and built from scratch.

For more than a year, Antares, the only Belgian team ever to qualify for the competition, had poured countless hours into developing its Scorpion II rocket. The result was a remarkable feat of engineering, bringing together mechanics, electronics, chemistry, physics and computer science in a single machine designed to soar into the Portuguese sky.

Was I proud? Of course. But more than anything, I felt hopeful. Stories about young people too often focus on vandalism, violence and troublemaking. So there's something deeply encouraging about seeing a group of students who willingly spend their weekends and countless late nights building a rocket.

In many ways, this rocket's journey began long before university. It began when my son was in primary school, attending CoderDojo sessions on Saturday mornings. CoderDojo is a global non-profit movement that introduces children and teenagers to coding through free, hands-on learning clubs. The kids learn by experimenting, making mistakes, solving problems and helping each other, supported by volunteer mentors who generously offer their free time. My son attended these sessions almost every Saturday for years. Looking back, giving him that opportunity was one of the best decisions we ever made.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of speaking at a gathering of CoderDojo mentors. Today, Belgium has 115 active clubs, most of them in Flanders. That’s an impressive achievement, and yet, nowhere near enough for what lies ahead. Because there's a dangerous misconception taking hold: that AI is making coding skills irrelevant. After all, why bother teaching children to programme when an AI model can produce thousands of lines of code in seconds, right?

The answer is simple: because understanding the technology matters more than ever. The programmer's role isn't disappearing. It's evolving. Writing every line of code yourself will increasingly give way to something far more demanding: knowing how to guide AI systems, understand their output, challenge their decisions and integrate them into real-world products and industrial processes.

That will require more technical expertise, not less. We'll need more people with strong computing skills than ever before. They'll simply be doing different things. And the fundamentals like mathematics, physics, chemistry and logical reasoning certainly won't change. Without those foundations, people can only follow an AI model’s output, not critically assess it.

Belgium once understood the importance of investing in technical skills. After the Second World War, we established Provincial Technical Institutes to provide the expertise needed to build a modern industrial economy. We need that same sense of urgency today.

Our industries are already struggling with a chronic shortage of technically skilled people. Too many technical schools are still preparing students for yesterday's economy, while too few young people are choosing science, engineering and technology at university or college. And many of the talented computer scientists we do educate are drawn to the start-up world. Who can blame them?

Companies like TechWolf have become inspiring success stories. They attract talent, ambition and investment. Everyone dreams of building the next TechWolf. And that's a good thing. We need entrepreneurs who think big. But we also need engineers who can build machines, technicians who understand complex production systems and specialists who can bring AI into the factories and industries that underpin our economy.

Right now, those businesses are struggling to find them. Meanwhile, AI is poised to transform almost every sector of society. Some students are currently enrolling in degree programmes that prepare them for jobs which may look completely different or barely exist ten years from now. Perhaps university prospectuses should come with warning labels, much like cigarette packets: "Warning: This degree may seriously harm your future career prospects."

It's a provocative thought, but the underlying issue is real. Europe has never been particularly good at thinking long term. We're much better at dealing with today's emergencies than investing in tomorrow's opportunities. Yet preparing the next generation for a world where technology is as fundamental as electricity is essential to our future relevance, competitiveness and prosperity.

And that's why initiatives like CoderDojo matter so much. Not every child needs to become a software developer. Not every teenager needs to study engineering. But every child deserves the chance to discover that technology isn't just something you consume. It's something you can understand, shape and create. That simple realisation can change the course of a young person's life. I know, because I've seen it happen. So to all the CoderDojo mentors who turn up, Saturday after Saturday, sharing their knowledge, patience and enthusiasm: thank you!