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That suggestion is even more important when talking to a laid-off programmer

Yesterday someone was commenting about decaying infrastructure and continuous firefighting at Amazon: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33627563

That person recommended coding exercises in all seriousness because of the chaos at their bigco.

you should avoid saying "learn to code BETTER", of course :)

learn [new and hip language or framework]

Or maybe "use the time off to set up a Kubernetes cluster"

why pile more suffering on top of their current amount?

Telling a laid off programmer "learn to code" seems a little...harsh.

Offer times when you're available to help milk their new goats.

Learn to mine coal?

I'd recommend not saying "Learn to code." :)