In the tenth episode of WordCamp Europe Insights, Kasia Janoska sits down with Mary Hubbard, Executive Director of WordPress, for a conversation that starts with Kraków’s dragon and quickly moves into one of the most important topics for the project’s future: education.
Kasia frames 2026 as an education year for WordPress. Mary agrees, but the discussion goes further than simply introducing new programmes. This is a conversation about students, mentors, universities, meetups, AI, contribution pathways, and how WordPress can become easier to enter without losing the strength of its community.
Two Programmes, One Pipeline
Kasia begins with two names that are already becoming more visible across the project: WordPress Credits and Campus Connect.
Mary explains the difference clearly.
WordPress Credits is curriculum-based. It is built into educational institutions, where students can earn academic credit by contributing to WordPress. Depending on the school, that may mean a shorter internship-style commitment or a longer semester-based programm.
Campus Connect is different. It is event-based. It creates lower-barrier opportunities through workshops, speakers, and hands-on sessions. It gives students exposure to WordPress without requiring a full curriculum commitment from the start.
Kasia immediately spots the connection between the two. Campus Connect can become the first spark that leads an institution towards WordPress Credits. Mary describes it as an educational flywheel: an event attracts attention, a teacher or local advocate gets involved, students begin to engage, and the relationship can grow from there.
Meeting Institutions Where They Are
When Kasia asks how many institutions are already involved, Mary says there are more than twenty actively participating or piloting, with hundreds of students already engaged.
But what matters most is not only the number. It is the flexibility.
Some institutions need a 50-hour internship structure. Others want a full semester. Some are already teaching WordPress but missing the community connection. Others are just beginning to explore how open source contribution might fit into their courses.
Mary is clear that the programme is still being treated as a pilot. Feedback is expected. Adjustments are part of the process. The goal is not to force every institution into the same model, but to build something that can adapt while still giving students a meaningful route into the WordPress project.
Mentors as the Missing Bridge
Kasia then turns to mentors, one of the most important parts of WordPress Credits.
Mary describes the role as straightforward but essential. Mentors do not need to know everything. They should understand at least one Make team well enough to guide students into it.
That guidance matters because WordPress.org can be intimidating for newcomers.
Joining a public Slack channel, asking a question in front of thousands of people, or waiting for feedback on a pull request can feel overwhelming. Mentors help students find the right place, understand the process, and keep going when silence or confusion might otherwise push them away.
Kasia asks directly whether mentors are paid. Mary answers honestly: it depends. Some may be sponsored by companies, while others contribute because they care about the project. She also points out something interesting: many people in the WordPress community are former educators. The talent to support this work is already inside the community.
Good Ideas Should Not Be Gatekept
The conversation widens when Kasia mentions student clubs and local initiatives, including a programme in Kraków where high school students learned WordPress and started building school websites.
Mary’s answer is one of the strongest parts of the episode.
Good ideas can come from anywhere.
Campus Connect did not begin as a top-down master plan. Student clubs also grew naturally. Mary argues that the community should stop gatekeeping good ideas and start trying them. If something is useful, test it. If it works, amplify it.
This also applies to younger learners. Mary talks about speaking with school boards, high schools, and educational institutions about how WordPress can be introduced earlier. She connects this with AI microcredentials, certifications, and clearer learning routes that could give students and professionals a recognised standard.
Kasia adds a practical perspective from small businesses. For companies without HR departments or technical hiring specialists, trusted WordPress credentials could make hiring easier. Mary agrees and connects the idea to WordPress.jobs, profiles, visible skills, and social proof.
The larger point is clear: education is not only about students. It is about trust, skills, employability, and how the community signals competence.
The Community Wants to Learn Too
One thing surprised Mary: not only students are asking for education.
Existing contributors, agencies, freelancers, and companies also want clearer ways to learn new skills, especially around AI. People are asking what kind of training WordPress can offer, how AI will affect agencies and plugin businesses, and what role the project can play in helping the community adapt.
That surprised her because open source contribution is already built on learning. But the demand is more explicit now.
Kasia and Mary both circle around the same idea: meetups and local events could become learning hubs again. Not only social gatherings, but places where people solve issues, practise skills, and run small contributor days.
Mary’s vision here is practical. Pick an issue. Work on it together. Learn by doing.
The Hard Part: Onboarding
Kasia then brings in feedback she collected from students and mentors. The positive part is clear: students were excited that the programmes were not just online lectures. They involved hands-on work. Students who had previously found WordPress unclear began to understand what they could actually do with it.
But the difficult part was just as clear.
People felt overwhelmed.
Too much material. Too many handbooks. Too many places to look. Too much assumed knowledge.
Mary does not defend the system. She names the problem directly: onboarding was not good enough.
The programme expected too much from teachers and mentors, and too much from students who were entering a large, fragmented open source project for the first time.
Her answer is pathways. Clear routes. Good first issues. Small, defined tasks that let people understand what they are doing, complete something, and feel recognised for it.
That recognition matters. A first contribution should feel like a real milestone, not like shouting into a void.
When Slack Becomes a Wall
Kasia gives a concrete example. Some students were told to ask questions in Slack, but they posted in the wrong place and received no answer.
Mary recognises the problem immediately.
WordPress is global, but its communication has not always supported that reality well. Separate Slack instances, local groups, regional channels, and event-specific spaces have all done useful work, but they have also created silos.
Mary describes the effort to reduce those silos by moving more activity into clearer, shared spaces. The goal is not simply tidier communication. It is connection.
If two groups are working on similar initiatives but exist in different Slack instances, they may never meet. If a student asks a question in the wrong place, they may assume the community is ignoring them.
That is not a small issue. It can decide whether someone stays.
A Project That Needs More “Let’s Try”
Throughout the episode, Mary keeps returning to one principle: try things.
Do not wait forever for perfect structure. Do not let the process block momentum. If an idea seems useful, start. If it works, others will join. If it does not, move on.
Kasia’s questions keep the conversation grounded, especially when she asks about specific initiatives, student feedback, mentors, and the upcoming panel at WordCamp Europe. Mary answers with the same broader theme each time: WordPress needs clearer pathways, better onboarding, and more willingness to test new models of learning and contribution.
This is not a polished final system yet. It is a project learning how to teach itself better.
AI, Credentials, and the Next Generation
Near the end, Kasia asks about the WordCamp Europe panel Mary will join. Mary explains that the discussion will connect WordPress, AI, professional certification, and microcredentials.
That fits naturally with the rest of the episode.
If AI changes how people build, learn, and work, then WordPress education cannot stay static. The project needs ways to help people retrain, prove skills, and understand where they fit in the future.
Mary also shares her own current small goal: learning AI deeply, including how to co-work with it and code with it. Kasia notes the human side of that answer too, when Mary adds that her personal goal is to enjoy summer with her children.
Mary’s final point is simple and sharp: what is the point of automation if it does not give us more time with the people we love?
Education as an Invitation
What makes this episode work is the balance between strategy and reality.
Mary talks about systems, credentials, dashboards, pathways, and institutions. Kasia keeps bringing it back to practical questions: how does a university join, how does someone become a mentor, what happens when students get lost, and what needs to improve next?
The result is not a finished blueprint. It is a candid look at a project in motion.
WordPress education is no longer just about teaching people how to use WordPress. It is about helping people enter the community, contribute with confidence, learn new skills, and carry those skills into their work and careers.
If you are coming to WordCamp Europe, this is a conversation worth following closely. Join the sessions, ask questions, meet the people building these initiatives, and think about where you could help.
And if you have not secured your ticket yet, do it now. WordCamp Europe begins on 4 June, and the clock is ticking.
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