When I was asked to lead an independent review into digital skills by Ed Miliband, I must admit I did not quite know what I was letting myself in for. But I agreed to do it for the same reason I founded TeenTech: out of frustration that so many young people are missing out on the opportunities available to them in an ever-expanding digital world, in spite of being the most tech-savvy generation we have ever had.
The UK technology sector employs one in 20 UK workers and accounts for nearly nine per cent of the UK economy. We know that the need for digital skills is only going to grow: the Science Council estimates that the ICT workforce alone will grow by 39 per cent by 2030. And it is not just the technology sector that needs digital skills; O2’s report on the future digital skills needs of the UK economy found that in the four-year period between 2013 and 2017, 745,000 additional workers with digital skills would be needed to meet rising demands from employers. As one employer put it to me at one of our regional roundtable discussions, ‘increasingly every business is a digital business and every job is a digital job’.
So for the past six months, the UK Digital Skills Taskforce has engaged with hundreds of individuals and organisations to look at what needs to be done to nurture home-grown talent to meet the needs of Britain’s modern economy. Our report – Digital Skills for Tomorrow’s World – sets out a series of recommendations for the next government.
It is clear that our education system needs to change to give young people the foundations they need to succeed in the new digital economy. While the new computing curriculum is welcome, there is some concern about the readiness of our schools to teach it effectively from this September. So far, the government has committed £3.5m to help schools prepare, but at £175 per school, that is not nearly enough and compares poorly with recent provision for CPD for teachers in maths, physics and global issues. Jersey is investing around £15,750 per school to mount a similar step-change. Small wonder that 60 per cent of teachers surveyed recently said that they did not feel confident in delivering the new curriculum. So we are recommending that government should invest at least an additional £20m by 2020 to embed the new curriculum in schools.
Schools must invest time and support for computing teachers to deepen their subject knowledge and develop their teaching styles and we need to address the serious shortage of new computing teachers. Universities should encourage their computer science undergraduates to consider teaching by offering the Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme, giving university students the opportunity to give something back to local schools, while developing their own skillsets. We also think that government should provide a route for experienced tech professionals to enter the teaching profession via fast track ‘Teach Next’ route, modelled on the success of Teach First.
Partnerships between education providers and the world of technology are critical. The government should launch a ‘Digital Challenge for Schools’. Modelled on the collaborative approach of London Challenge, which did huge deal of good in raising aspirations and attainment in London’s schools, we want to see government stimulating sustainable partnerships between schools, colleges, universities and industry to enhance careers advice and the curricular and extra-curricular opportunities available to young people.
Despite the strong benefits of apprentices to businesses and their appeal to school students, numbers of ICT apprenticeship starts actually fell by 28 per cent in England between 2010-11 and 2012-13, down from 19,520 down to 14,120. The number of starts among those aged under 19 has fallen by 50 per cent. The complexity of the system was a common complaint we encountered and I should emphasise that this was a concern expressed as forcefully by some of the big corporates as it was by the SMEs we engaged with.
And through working with young people as part of the process, we have identified serious challenges around careers advice, perceptions about tech jobs and the sort of people who work in them and a lack of role models, particularly for young women – not at all surprising given that just 16 per cent of the IT workforce are women.
It was only when I joined Tomorrow’s World in 1982 that I had any sense of just how broad the world of science, technology and engineering really was and how there were many different entry points which led to deeply rewarding careers. Since then, the world has changed, the opportunities have grown and further change lies ahead. Our lives are now digital by default.
This country has a great computing heritage. But what was striking how many people had no idea that it was Tim Berners-Lee who developed the world wide web until they saw him appear at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games two years ago.
Having made some wild, wacky and occasionally accurate predictions about the future during my time presenting Tomorrow’s World, I’m a little reticent about predicting the future. But I think Berners-Lee was right when he said: ‘the future is so much bigger than the past.’ It is our job – educators, charities, businesses and government all working collectively – to empower the next generation to seize it.
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Maggie Philbin is chair of the UK Digital Skills Taskforce, chief executive of TeenTech and a technology broadcaster. She tweets at @maggiephilbin