If someone is learning to program they do not need a Raspberry Pi to do it.
programming can all be learned on the PC.
What the Pi is doing is giving people a cheap way of using what they have learnt to be introduced into other items.
Running a webserver, a media player, a games machine, a controller for something.
Although lots of these things can be done with other prototype devices.
The Pi does not just cost the £30 it is priced at, you need an SD card, good power supply, external storage, a case for the pi, interface boards etc. It is however a start.
If Ty is not into electronics then this would remain something like a webserver or media player unless he learned some (and this could get him interested).
I have 2 originals doing nowt until I find an actual application for them. Currently I have no use for them so they are still in the box. (I got them because my son was interested - by the time I received them he had lost interest).
Read the blog at
http://www.raspberrypi.org/ to see whats being done with them.