By Emily Wither and Girish Gupta

ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) – At a training course in northern Iraq, people displaced by the wars in Mosul and neighbouring Syria are learning how to code.

Some are already being sought by global companies even though they live in sprawling, dusty camps near Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region, not far from Islamic State’s last major stronghold in Iraq.

The students come from regions seized by the Sunni militants in 2014 when they swept through parts of Iraq and Syria, and from other areas hit by Syria’s civil war.

The New York-based group overseeing the Iraq Re:Coded project has started a training course in a residential house in Erbil, funded by the United Nations Development Program.

Many students are highly educated but find no jobs in their fields as the flood of displaced people made employment scare.

“I was so sad to leave my studies and I worried about my future,” said Joory al-Aamed, 27, who fled Damascus with her family in the middle of a computer engineering degree. “Re:Coded gave me a new hope to plan for my future.”

The project teaches everything from English language and web basics to object-oriented programming. It follows the curriculum of New York’s Flatiron School and is overseen by New York University.

‘HERCULEAN TASK’

Re:Coded is looking to place students at foreign companies and major Iraqi firms, while some are seeking further education, including computer science degrees.

READ MORE HERE:   http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/having-fled-fighting–iraqis-and-syrians-learn-to-code/42949230

(Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by Dominic Evans)