It happened to me, though at that time VSCode wasn't really a thing yet.

For Python, I used Anaconda. It come packed with so much packages that only for very specific edge cases you would need to bundle extra packages.

Concerning VSCode, you can prepare what you need, and download the list of extensions to install on the target machines from a USB Key. Not ideal, but for starting with Python, not much is needed.

You could also select another IDE, I agree that PyCharm is a good start and many of my colleagues started with this program, our formation session use also this IDE to teach the basics of Python. Or go lighter. A Notepad++ can be enough for starters.