Government told to scrap school IT lessons

[Kitkatninja]

Government told to scrap school IT lessons

 

IT lessons should be dropped from the national curriculum, IT industry trade association Intellect has advised the government.

 

Read it here.

 

-Ken

[pete]

They aren't as well-suited for enticing someone into an IT career as they could be.*

 

However this bit:

"Take up of IT courses is falling and the basic IT skills being generated by the education system are not meeting learners' or employers' needs. Technology companies often have to spend considerable time up-skilling new employees as a result," said John Hoggard, programme manager at Intellect.

 

is complete rubbish.

 

Every just-out-of-school/uni/whatever entry-level IT worker needs to be up-skilled by their employer. Whatever you were taught will always be out-of-date or wrong.

 

If an IT worker (technical/dev/whatever) is significantly disadvantaged by the poor IT teaching at school (GCSE/A-Level) then they probably weren't that interested in the career to start with. Geeks tend to teach themselves at that level.

 

* I'm aware the teaching of IT differs wildly in schools. In some places it's awesome, in others it's not. But IT is the subject most likely to be taught by a random teacher rather than one with any qualification in the subject. It's also a subject highly likely to be dropped at GCSE/A-Level choices.

[Dos_Box]

It's already being discussed here: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/news/74565-uk-ict-classes-should-overhauled.html