Why aren't young people taking computer courses at school?

GGizmo

GGizmo

GGizmo

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I was browsing around the BBC site earlier today and noticed this story;

UK 'heading towards digital skills shortage disaster'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56479304

The UK is heading towards a "catastrophic" digital skills shortage "disaster", a think tank has warned.

The Learning & Work Institute says the number of young people taking IT subjects at GCSE has dropped 40% since 2015.
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I'm in my 40s these days and when I was at school we didn't have the opportunity to take IT subjects at GCSE level. We had computer classes. But never a recognised course. If there had been a course at GCSE level open to me I'd have done it.

So can the younger folks explain why students aren't taking these IT based GCSE subjects these days? How come the take up rate is low?
 
They don’t teach you anything extensive outside of how to use a computer and most IT professionals go to work in industry rather than teach.

That and from the service side of things it’s a race to the bottom. You can earn more working at McDonalds than working for a MSP.
 
BowdonUK said:
So can the younger folks explain why students aren't taking these IT based GCSE subjects these days? How come the take up rate is low?
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There's nothing more frustrating than IT problems. An obscure bug, a completely undocumented MS "feature", a device/app that behaves as intended for 95% of your users, but 5% have weird issues for no apparent reason.

The tagline for people getting into IT should be, "abandon hope all ye who enter".

That said, chiluns at school don't yet know how soul-destroying IT is, so that can't explain it :p
 
Many youths today don’t have or aren’t interested in desktop/laptop computers.

My wife is a secondary school teacher and due to COVID, they’ve had to work out how to get their lessons to work on phones, tablets and consoles more so than ‘traditional’ computers.

Kids these days would rather be a Vlogger or #Influencer, than a software engineer.
 
BowdonUK said:
I was browsing around the BBC site earlier today and noticed this story;

UK 'heading towards digital skills shortage disaster'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56479304



I'm in my 40s these days and when I was at school we didn't have the opportunity to take IT subjects at GCSE level. We had computer classes. But never a recognised course. If there had been a course at GCSE level open to me I'd have done it.

So can the younger folks explain why students aren't taking these IT based GCSE subjects these days? How come the take up rate is low?
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IT is still looked at as a very nerdy subject. Also Computing GCSE that are taught at some skills is not an easy subject, it requires strong Maths skills. As it is usually a option at GCSE level in most schools pupils end up taking the traditional courses. Children that normally take Computing are the ones that most likely already know that they want to get into the field/subject when they get to University. And lets be honest at that age not many children know what they really want to do!
 
This is something I’ve been battling with recently, as a tech employer, apprenticeship firms have been on at me to hire young software developers. Sounds great in theory but the lack of knowledge particularly fresh out of school or college is staggering. Interviews have been quite painful.

Not only that but very little of them have done work or self teaching outside of school hours. Theres no hunger to get the head down, learn and progress. I feel for these youngsters. Software and IT should be part of the curriculum, its vital.

Ive just this week opened another office overseas for the sole purpose of hiring talent.

Edit: I should also add that i recently started recruiting graduate UI designers. Over 300 applications from universities and art schools, less than 10% of them actually had anything that resembled a website or app in their portfolio. Speaking to a couple of them in particular, I asked why this was and they openly said it was almost discouraged in design courses because the lecturers wouldn't mark them; They were more interested in physical arty farty displays and printed letterheads. Just setting the youngsters up for a life of unemployment in dying industries, I was appalled.
 
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School computer courses are basically Microsoft word, excel and PowerPoint classes. There is rarely anything transferable to the real world or interesting enough to keep their attention.

Add into that most of the youth being more aware of mobile operating systems rather than Windows. When I was at school, most people atleast had a laptop or desktop PC. Nowadays it's tablets and phones.

It appears to be becoming quite a niche area.
 
Kind of surprised.

Thought lessons would have moved on.. **** when I was at school
Get that 'YouTube star" is the new astronaut, but if people aren't getting into IT they won't have jobs. Just look st retail.

Not everyone can be a youtuber
 
AiiR said:
School computer courses are basically Microsoft word, excel and PowerPoint classes. There is rarely anything transferable to the real world or interesting enough to keep their attention.

Add into that most of the youth being more aware of mobile operating systems rather than Windows. When I was at school, most people atleast had a laptop or desktop PC. Nowadays it's tablets and phones.

It appears to be becoming quite a niche area.
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Not quite true, the actual Computing GCSE course does involve programming and coding, hence why its difficult for most. You need to have good maths skills and a desire and interest in the subject. The problem as shifty has mentioned not many actually are very keen on it to the point that they will pursue this outside of school.

When I was at school I did A Level ICT (I actually signed up for A level computing. long story), this was back in 2000. I was really interested in the subject and spent loads of time even out of school self learning. I did more then what the course was asking of me. In my spare time I was learning to code, design my own website etc. However I was fortunate, I think I graduated towards the tail end of when degrees actually meant you could get a decent job fairly easily if you put in the effort. Nowadays we have graduates doing general admin roles, either because they have not done a specialist degree or there is so many candidates for employers to choose from.

They do teach some basic coding etc from Primary schools now, however I think what we are lacking in this country compared to a lot of the other countries with more software engineers and coders etc is the weakness in Maths which is a prerequisite to be good in Computing.
 
Yeah Quadratic equasions are where I hit my maths wall...I just couldn't get the teacher to put it in a way I could get it, I would solve one problem and get stuck on the other, while the two Chinese girls in my class had no problems with it lol
 
I'm pretty sure my GCSE IT was compulsary so was shocked to find out my daughter wasn't doing it and had to elect to take it. When I was at school many of my peers didn't have computers at home so I guess it was deemed more important. Now I guess It's like some of those left-field GCSE courses like Childcare for those who are more interested in the relevant career.
 
When I was 13 I asked for a Synth keyboard for Christmas...I woke up to an Amstrad 128k disc drive computer...Maybe I would have been a Rockstar who knows but nope.
I remember being about 6 or 7 and having a cheap toy guitar and one day it somehow ended up on the couch and my dad who came round for his weekly visit sat on it and I was in tears, Do you think my parents saw the Rockstar potential in me at that age but didn't want me to go down the road of sex drugs and rock n roll?
 
My children's secondary school are not teaching GCSE IT anymore, I'd have thought that it should be a core skill in this day and age.
 
Because at GCSE level it is usless. Much more important to focus on Math, physics, English etc.

People that are into IT self-teach a lot and learn far more thab the IT curriculum. I was programming 2D platform games at 12 in QBasic, and a very good quake3 engine at 16 (graphically near identical).
 
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Reality|Bites said:
Back in my day we had one of the lecturers getting excited about the single 1x CD burner getting shared around the class rooms lol
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If that is a lol moment then getting excited about any new tech development is laughable...

Unless your 'day' was recently and you have just hit puberty. Yes, this would explain it...
 
Probably the same reason they don’t teach mechanics, carpentry and cooking anymore. There’s no need and as above it becomes niche with only a few required.

I’m no IT legend but when I needed something on my Amstrad I needed to know how to run and load. Now it’s all one button away for everything.

Do you even need the numbers required just a few years ago?
 
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