ICT Replaced in Schools by Computer Science
The government has announced plans to change the teaching in schools in move away from "ICT" to "Computer Science".[1] This comes amidst concerns that the education pipeline is failing to deliver to skills the real world needs. According to the guardian[2] "Britain is facing a shortage of workers with programming skills, fuelled by poor-quality training courses in universities and colleges". Classes in schools have been focusing ICT as office technology and what has been described as clerical skills rather than teaching pupils how the technology is made[3] . It is seen as important to teach computer science and programming skills to the future generation. Over the years there has been a perception that UK lacks IT skills particularly for advance software skills, such as programming.
Education pipeline failing to deliver 'hard' skills
The focus of e-skills UK is on addressing the need to increase the talent pool and addressing skills gaps and shortages, one way being encouraging student towards a career in IT. Yet in their "Technology Insights 2011"[4] they both describe an aging IT work force and decline in those taking up computer subjects. In 2001 16-29 year olds made up 33% of the industry in 2010 it was 16%. This is alongside a fall in enrolment on to IT courses, since 2002 a 33% drop in HE and since 2005 a 10% drop for FE courses. E-skills do state that the "sector favours experienced workers". Figures for the employment prospects computer science graduates taken for 2009/2010[5] shown that 14.7% become unemployed worse than any other discipline (including Arts, History and Philosophy). Research carried out for UK burgeoning computer games industry[6] raised concerns about the quality of courses aimed at equipping individuals for that industry, only 12% of graduates from those specialist courses ended up employed in the industry. Graduates lack the "hard" industry relevant skills, according to the authors, Maths, Physics and programming skills are in short supply. They state that universities and colleges are more interested in recruiting students than pushing up standards. There is surely little incentive for the young to take up the study of computer science where, for some at least the employment prospects are poor. Yet apparently we need and are going to need people with these skills. It is worth questioning in what numbers (the games industry is not going end unemployment single handed) and whether or not there is a still a deficiency in basic IT user skills amongst the wider workforce. Either way when it comes to IT skills there needs to be, a whom? Where? And what? Proper needs analysis is especially important in areas of rapid change where currency equals relevance. 12 January 2012Links
[1] Computer skills are the grammar of the 21st century, says Ed Vaizey[2] Britain's computer science courses failing to give workers digital skills
[3] Coding - the new Latin
[4] "Technology Insights 2011 (scotland)" e-skills UK 2010
[5] Higher Education Statistics Agency
[6] Next Gen: Transforming the UK into the world's leading talent hub for the video games and visual effects industries
see also:
School ICT to be replaced by computer science programme
Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google, condemns British education system
digital literacy campaign - www.guardian.co.uk
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