Programming on the Curriculum

As the number of computer science graduates decreases and our reliance on computers in the workplace increases there is a very real need for people to gain and develop skills in programming, coding and other IT essentials. One possible way of plugging this gap is by teaching coding and programming languages as part of the school curriculum.

Replacing French?

Over in the USA some states are beginning to realise that these are skills that we need to develop early. Some states are allowing these courses to count towards scores in Mathematics and Science, but with only 1 in 10 schools offering the courses at the moment, across the nation, it seems there’s still some way to go before it becomes part of a curriculum generally accepted as necessary for students entering the work place. Interestingly enough some schools may, it’s thought, start offering programming languages instead of a foreign language. Will this create problems in itself in an international market?

Thinking outside the computer

Here, too, the National Curriculum in England and Wales is introducing coding in its 2014 changes, recognising these needs. Children as young as five will be taught the basics and introduced to the ideas. At Key Stage One they will hopefully be taught to understand algorithms and reason out how simple programmes will work. According to the curriculum changes, by the age of 14 students will be adept at coding, as well as using some key transferable skills such as critical thinking, logic and creativity.

Scotland, too, is developing its students’ computing skills far beyond the basic word processing and MS Paint prowess the last generation was familiar with. A range of computer science skills are taught as part of the Curriculum for Excellence, including app development and coding, and like their counterparts in England, Scottish children are taught familiarity from a very early age. 3 year olds in the nurseries are adept at using computers and understanding the basics. The future workplace should, theoretically, be populated with people with at least basic skills in these key areas and it seems likely that the environment will encourage those with talent to develop it much further than was possible before.

Here and now 

Where does that leave us now, before the curriculum can benefit those in the workplace already? How will we, as a business nation, handle the inevitable changes and updates in the industry? Learning coding early will help young minds to be able to adapt to changes, rather than learning from scratch. Luckily there are courses around that can help companies and individuals to fill the gaps they have in their IT knowledge, for instance, you can see here for IT training from Microsoft product training to CISCO labs. It is possible to outsource the problems, but it’s rarely cost effective to do so in the long term, especially when some of these skills are now considered ‘basic’.

It seems clear that the way we handle early coding experience will directly affect our ability to compete as a nation over the next generation. Familiarity with the concepts behind coding and programming will make it easier for students to translate those skills in the workplace into working with a variety of platforms and to learn further programming languages.