# 2 - Primers - Python & GitHub Coding

This learning path is built for non-developers in finance, analysts, associates, and operations professionals who live in spreadsheets and want to automate the repetitive, rule-based work that fills their day. You'll learn Python from the ground up using examples drawn entirely from financial work: portfolios, reconciliations, fee schedules, watchlists, and reporting.

Alongside the language itself, you'll develop the judgment to use GitHub Copilot responsibly, treating it as an assistant whose output you always verify, never a replacement for your own understanding. The course is organized into three phases that change how you work with Copilot as your skills grow:

- **Phase 1 (Learn Python)**: Copilot acts as a Tutor that explains and clarifies while you read, run, and write your first scripts.
- **Phase 2 (Solve Problems)**: It becomes a Thinking Partner that helps you compare approaches and reason through loops, collections, functions, and input validation.
- **Phase 3 (Use Python Effectively)**: It serves as an Accelerator for debugging, testing, refactoring, and the professional GitHub workflow — with you reviewing every suggestion before you accept it.

The path ends with a capstone in which you build, test, refine, and ship a complete portfolio tool of your own. Every module is short (about 30 minutes) and hands-on, pairing plain-language instruction with practical exercises you complete.

## Who is this for?
- Financial professionals in non-developer roles who want to automate routine, structured work.
- Learners with no prior programming experience, comfort with spreadsheets is all that's assumed.

## What you’ll be able to do
- Read, run, and write Python that applies consistent logic to financial data.
- Work with variables, conditionals, loops, lists, dictionaries, and functions.
- Validate inputs and handle messy real-world data gracefully.
- Debug failures, write simple tests, and refactor code for clarity.
- Apply GitHub Copilot responsibly as a tutor, thinking partner, and accelerator, verifying its output at every step.

### Lesson  Getting Oriented: Learning Python with GitHub Copilot