It’s fair to say that at a young age most youngsters are not planning to be accountants. More glamorous ambitions will be at the forefront of their minds, be it a uniformed job like being a fire fighter, a sporting ambition or even going into space.

But the reality is that one day, many of today’s kids will have accepted they are not going to play football for England or fly to Mars and will see accounting as a profession they will excel at - as well as earning a healthy living from.

For that reason, learning to code may be particularly important as a new research paper by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants has highlighted the value to the profession of being able to code, enabling accountants to understand, analyse and use data better.

This can in turn provide better career opportunities and enable code-literate accountants to differentiate from their competitors.

Some might ask why coding classes for kids are so important if accountants could simply acquire the necessary skills later, but the report provides a very strong reason for starting such learning much earlier; it found that while the benefits of coding were recognised by most, 84 per cent said they simply did not have the time available for training.

The same rationale will apply in any sector in which coding skills may be useful either now or in the future, but where the day-to-day priorities of a busy workload will allow scant opportunities to undertake training. By learning to code at an after school club or in the holidays, children will enter the world of work as capable of coding as they should be at the three Rs.

Let's say your child grows up wanting to be a chef. Even this sector is increasingly making use of coding! A new report by PS Market research has found the global food and drink industry is actually driving demand for coding faster than any other sector.

Whatever your kids want to be, it appears there will always be a good reason to learn to code.