Features of teaching the basics of programming to students of non-core directions of training

The article outlines the problems associated with teaching the basics of programming to students of areas of study not related to computer science, but in the curricula of which there are disciplines involving the study of programming. The authors describe the experience of teaching such disciplines in an agricultural university, justify the choice of the Visual Basic for Applications programming language, describe the content and professionally oriented tasks according to the areas of student training.