Encouraging tech-savvy kids to pursue IT careers
In light of the industry’s concerns about skills shortages facing the UK, parliamentary lobby group Pitcom and IT sector skills council e-skills UK have launched a competition to discover the most innovative young users of IT amongst the next generation.
The Made IT Happen competition requires schoolkids aged nine to 11 to enter imaginative projects, which make good use of their school’s IT resources and fits the national curriculum. A positive initiative like this could help to harness kids’ interest in technology and helps them acquire vital skills for the future. Likewise, sowing these seeds of interest in IT as an attractive career choice amongst the next generation is important to growing and sustaining our industry. Butwe need to kill the myth that you can only have a career in IT if you have a degree in IT. Graduates with degrees in engineering, music, electronics, and any other degrees which require self-motivation, conceptual ability, logical thinking and mental agility can all make a valuable contribution to the industry.
It’s a common misconception that only IT graduates are interested in IT, and you have to have an IT degree to pursue a career in the industry. As far as I’m concerned, all of this goes out the window as soon as a candidate can demonstrate 12 months' practical experience. Research shows that young people find technology interesting and exciting and we need to actively encourage and nurture this.
The public and private sectors must work together to publicise IT as a stimulating and rewarding career to young people if it is to compete with better-marketed career choices such as business and marketing. Alongside initiatives like Made IT Happen, what’s needed are programmes to give young people useful and relevant experience, many more industrial placements and the funding to help employers to do this cheaply. We also need to create more opportunities for existing employees to move into IT.
Most companies have hidden pools of talent, perhaps graduates filling in time in shipping departments or on the factory floor until they find a ‘real’ job. In Germany, apprenticeships are still common and many people opt for IT careers after a two- or three-year apprenticeship in an IT department. UK businesses and the government have a moral and competitive responsibility to address the skills shortage. The decline of people working in IT won’t just affect this industry today – it will have serious long-term effects on productivity and competitiveness on UK businesses and the economy.
As someone who has spent twenty years in IT, I tell young people: don't make the same mistake I did.
IT is boring, age discrimination is rampant and, once whatever technology you're familiar with is obsolete, so are you.
Do something else.
Robert.
Posted by: Robert | Tuesday, 24 April 2007 at 06:16 AM
In my job I interview hundreds of candidates for an Advanced IT Apprenticeship scheme that includes qualifications from Microsoft and CompTIA as well as 12 months integrated work experience.
The young people I meet are, in general, enthusiastic and passionate about IT. It is up to employers to keep that passion by offering clear career and professional development paths as well as involving IT in the business-decision making process.
Our biggest challenge is not to find enough young people who want a career in IT - I presented to a group of over 35 potential candidates last night for one of our sites - but to find enough employers willing to invest in developing a young member of staff through their business.
If Robert has had a dull career then perhaps this has more to do with the corporate culture he has experienced rather than IT itself.
Posted by: Tony P | Thursday, 07 June 2007 at 11:23 AM
This is a very nice post, and I want to see how others react to this.
Posted by: John | Monday, 02 July 2007 at 05:19 PM