UK.gov to build child army of software coders

@ Pete 2 - Indeed

I think this would require existing designers/coders to be given incentives to cross train into teaching rather than try to retrain none qualified teachers. The only potential issue I see there is in identifying the right kind of designers/coders and providing sufficient incentives (baring in mind that developers who don't have the personality of a brick tend to attract salaries towards the higher end of the scale).

Computer science has never been taught very well in schools, reform would be a good thing. But before they start giving Comp.Sci lessons, they need to start properly teaching the prerequisite skills like Maths and English and plenty of hard science subjects too.

As far as I can see, the UK school system is not teaching my kids any skills that will make them employable when they leave education. I don't my kids to be happy and content at school and leave with 10 grade A-star-super-double-plus grades in worthless subjects. I want them to learn the true meaning of hard work and hate every minute of it, but come out with a good technical skill set that will enable them to succeed in life.

This is not a new thing

After sitting my O-Levels (1987), I read an overview of the GCSE Computer Studies. It seemed to concentrate on using software rather than developing it. My O-Level Computer Studies included learning how to program in BBC Basic and assembly language. The change of focus was horrific.

This realisation by Gov.UK the coders that taught themselves or studied subjects where programming was taught are getting older and younger people are not entering the market is not a surprise. Why would anyone waste an O-Level on learning how to drive the current favourite office productivity software when I could learn a skill for earning a living.

If you can

do - if you cannot, teach!

In reality

they'll give some books to existing IT/technology (and hopefully mathematics?) teachers and expect them to teach the stuff.

I just hope that they don't focus too much on "how to program in [choice of language]" or the "games" angle. Teaching "computer science" which actually turned out to be just "games programming" would be like teaching art that was actually just watercolour painting, science that was all plant biology, geography that was all volcanoes, etc.

Of course games programming is exciting to a certain subset of kids but computer science obviously has applications far beyond the world of games and you can't have an education in the subject without delving deeper - and there's no reason for Britain to neglect other parts of it's tech economy in schools either.

Bung! This ministerial message is sponsored by...

Instead of some minister getting all worked up about "video games and visual effects" as if they're the final frontier of human endeavour, how about delivering some high-quality education to address the actual needs of a modern society? While the Chinese gear up to deploy stuff in space, for example, the small-minded British minister in question (regardless of party affiliation - remember Mandelson?) will presumably be satisfied with a blue screen, "whoosh" noises and everyone pretending to be in space instead. I mean, why bother actually doing stuff when you can pretend to do it and meet all your favourite fictional characters at the same time?

Once again, an already-spoilt industry lobby tugs the strings and the clueless minister's mouth moves, the public wallet opening to dispense cash to a bunch of people whose business model involves paying obscene amounts of money for stupid brand and "franchise" licences, whipping the minions doing 20 hour days, putting out the same old first-person shit, and then whining that people don't want to pay for it and that the government should jail everybody.

Sure, children should be taught actual computing alongside the mathematical skills to make proper use of it, instead of parking them in front of Word and PowerPoint and pretending that they're "really doing stuff". But none of this should be done purely for the benefit of the wider entertainment sector, as if that will somehow be driving the economy in the unlikely event of everyone in China wanting to sit down and twiddle some knobs at the mere sight of "Britards Dancing - Celebrity X-Box/Factor Edition".

Video games etc.

I agree that the gaming/CGI side of things is the a trivial (athough profitable) side of the IT sector as a whole, I kind of took it that the minister was trying to promote the sexy side of programming as a means to lure the kids in. One you get them in, the ones who are interested (and more likely to be good) will progress naturally.

Not sure you need to worry too much about teaching either, not before undergrad level anyway. Just provide the means. Natural engineering curiosity will out. As a kid, I was forever taking the backs off stuff and taking bikes apart to see how they worked. Then a TRS-80 CoCo arrived one Christmas and the rest is history.

Formal education can start once you've got kids safely signed up to an IT degree.

Schools need to adopt the Raspberry Pi with a couple of useful languages: ARM code, Cobol (yuck) being towards the top of the list.

I am with Bainshie completely

Oh why can I not keep away from these posts?

1. Education is not training. Repeat after me 'education is not training, education is not training, education is not training'. Thank you. Education is not about being able to leap into a job knowing how to configure ipconfiglinuxfoetidcommandlineshitebadgerbadgerbadger on day one to save the employer having to spend a penny on training. It is about teaching people fundamentals (and clearly how networking works is one of those) and giving the intellectual tools to learn throughout life.

2. I fear that the RaspberryPi is going to be the new fetishised item of the UK geek community (particularly the beard, glasses and real ale segment). Whilst there is nothing not to like about a 20 quid ARM device easy to set up and get going with, Britain is going to need more than the next Elite to make up for the demise of our manufacturing industry and the imminent shafting of our finance sector via a Tobin tax.

3. In particular, whilst maybe a RaspberryPi educated teenager may come up with the next Angry Badgers, the computer games industry on the whole requires big teams and two things that Britain is piss-poor at, management and access to capital.

4. I suspect that as ever the IT skills shortage in this country is of 22 year olds with 5 years experience of technologies that have been around for 1 year who will work 70 hours a week for peanuts without answering back.

5. It would be more reassuring if our politicians did not orgasm in their pants at the first mention of a photo / press release opportunity featuring Google or Microsoft.

6. It is also unfortunate that the one tech organisation in this country that seems to have its shit together with regards to reaching horizontal markets is the BBC which

a) is disliked by the government

b) is disliked by a large section of the geek community (particularly the aforementioned beard, glasses and real ale brigade - you know, the ones that used to infest cix) for

i) oh noes, teh TV tax

ii) oh noes, I cannot run iPlayer on my Tesco Value Toaster (and other varieties of FOSS / information wants to be free irksomeness)

Clearly, although on some level 'distance is dead' and on another it isn't and the fact that the 3 major platforms (now that Symbian has finally died) are based 9000 miles away is a bad thing. It is harder to go down the pub and ask Bert if he knows anyone who can explain P if Bert is 9000 miles away.

"UK.gov to build child army of software coders"

Presumably since Child Chimney Sweeps are SO 19th century then?