By Nick Heath, 7 November 2008 17:06
NEWS
Teenagers are being told that IT is a "dream job" with the promise of working for "inspirational companies".
The BigAmbition initiative launched by e-skills UK is aimed at getting 14- to 19-year-olds excited about a career in technology.
The site hopes to improve teenagers' perception of the IT industry on the site by testimonials from project managers, designers and engineers living the dream at sites such as MySpace and creative design agency Milo.
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Businesses such as Facebook, Google, BT, MySpace and Transport for London are held up as "inspirational companies" to work for in the tech industry, while interactive games allow prospective employees to explore a "Dream job finder" and "Did you know quiz?".
Karen Price, CEO of e-skills UK, said in a statement: "The next generation of IT professionals has a huge role to play in terms of UK competitiveness. The sector is large and growing - we need 141,000 new IT professionals every year.
"Young people really enjoy using technology in their everyday lives and BigAmbition is full of information about how they can build on that interest with a variety of exciting, well paid careers in the IT sector."
The site also splits the multitude of degree courses on offer into four 'families' to help students better understand the options available to them.
Earlier this year a leading computing academic warned that a "boring" school IT curriculum was turning young people off careers in technology.
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. Karen Challinor
yeah kids
there's all the work you want .. plus a lot more you don't but it's too late by then you will be allowed to sleep occasionally
there's tons of money .. usually being given to the people around the board table, you won't see any
your efforts will be appreciated and rewarded .. appreciated by your colleagues, rewarded once a year via "secret santa" just don't expect anyone higher up the food chain to notice you exist
and you retire early .. usually without choice around the age of 40 but thats forever right kids
don't believe da hype, go be a plumber or an electrician, be your own boss, good money and hours you want to work
2. Les Blunden
What is the point of young people looking at the IT industry as a career when the big companies are outsourcing all the jobs to India!!
3. Simon Allen
Ms Challinor and Mr Blunden have summed it up! All I would add is that, mostly, folks don't know what their 'dream job' is until they are much older.
Also, it is more often that you stumble upon the dream job - because you had not understood enough to put all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together.
This sounds like a straight forward PR exercise of people justifying their own jobs. I don't want to sound bitter as IT was good to me - until I got to be too old and the next generation of bright young things thought I was an old f@rt and did not want my 25 years of knowledge and experience.
4. Mark Hosey
Telling them is easy but convincing them is a whole different ball game.
Many tech workers have been thoroughly disenfranchised by the low remuneration, lack of prospects, long hours and/or long term job instability. So much so that for every voice saying "what a great job it is" there are probably 10 vociferously expressing the opposite opinion.
Before they can convince tomorrows employees what a great job it is they will first have to convince todays employees. And they can only do that by making amends for the treatment their employees have received so far.
........... so where's my christmas bonus?
5. Kevin
I am asked by lots of people with degrees in IT or manufacturer certification "how do I get a job in IT". My reply, having worked in IT for over 30 years and seen it all before is "get experience in IT".
Joseph Heller with Catch 22 has nothing on the IT industry. With any technology you learn being out of date in 12-18 months. Also IT usually being the leanest part of any business you can work lots of overtime, just don't expect to get paid for it. You are paid to work a professional working day.
IT has been good to me over the years but now I am told I am too old to do anything technical, I can't possibly understand the web, I can't have any original ideas, it's a young persons industry. Yet I see the same mistakes being made decade after decade. But this also applies to many other white collar activities.
It's good to laugh :-)
My advice is the same a a previous comment: learn a proper trade and start your own business. There is always a shortage of plumbers, electricians, plasterers etc
6. Radical Meldrew
BigAmbition? They might do better with the Big Issue? Modern business techniques have contrived to exclude the need for such all round expertise. Today there are so many lowly paid 'specialists' with such a narrow field of skills that they could not migrate to another company and still perform adequately. I believe this is a cynical management ploy to wipe out the past (there was always a profound jealousy when their techy subordinates got paid more) and to enhance their dominance in the general scheme of things.
Strategically, of course, this is nonsense but it does give management the upper hand to do what they do worst, make technical decisions which are not contested and blame the mess on poor implementation processes devised by their staff.
You may think that I have nearly talked myself out of being enthusiastic about technology any more but, rest assured, I haven't quit given up yet! I firmly believe that education and yes, experience, could still win the day and reverse this focus on bureaucracy. Bloated corporate structures need thinning out again by the reintroduction of multi-tasking all rounders and apprentices rather than legions of blinkered minions who follow production line type processes which they barely understand. Unless we change our course of action we will continue to stifle innovation and become uncompetitive. Rethinking what constitutes a business model and rebuilding, IT could again become a necessary skill with an honest reward structure, they might even dust off a few retirees and put them to good use again. Now I am dreaming but there's always hope?
7. Alex
This article sounds like a bad joke. It's like saying 20 years ago that working in mining and manufacturing is a "dream job".