I would like to add Code Year from Codecademy as an initiative to get people to learn how to code. Currently, they are teaching JavaScript via problem solving. There will be a new problem/exercise for each week.

Pros:
Nicely structured.
Fun projects (Blackjack/FizzBuzz/Cash Register)

Cons:
Every answer must be as what they expect (e.g if they expect you print out "Make Up!", they will not receive "Make up" or "Make up!" as the answer, even though your code is correct)
Learning curve might be steep for first-time coders. (we are in Week 11 now)

Otherwise, if you want to learn how to code, but has 0 experience about it and don't know what to learn, I'd suggest Code Year as a starting point.

http://www.codeyear.com/

When you say "IT field", it's more than just making websites or multimedia stuff or the likes. IT field can also include server and network administrator, and for that, the creativity you need is for solving problems and making things works better.

As a matter of fact, programming is not just limited to IT!

You want to automate something (making a machine run as it should), you got to program it.
You want to make a database of something (for records, automated budget calculation, etc etc), you got to program it.
You want to simulate a theory (especially if you are learning telco), you got to program it.