By Tom Espiner, 22 October 2007 08:22
NEWS
Young people need to become more enthused about science subjects and the possibilities of a career in IT to make the UK more competitive in the future, according to Stephen Timms, minister for competitiveness.
At the 2007 Parliament and the Internet Conference in Westminster, the minister said schoolchildren's enthusiasm for computer games should be harnessed to encourage the development of skills in maths and science, the proliferation of which would eventually make the UK more competitive globally. The minister underlined the need for additional funding to encourage IT skills development.
Timms said: "We need to get young people excited about maths and computing, and use the enthusiasm young people have for computer games to make them enthusiastic about maths and science. We've got a very big skills gap. Our most pressing challenge is competing in the global economy, so the biggest imperative is to raise the level of UK skills by investment in education."
Timms called on the IT community to help plug this skills gap. "We need computing science skills in the UK - not just broader science but technical skills. I hope the community and others can help," he said.
The minister praised the work of e-skills UK, the government IT-sector skills council, and said the government plans to follow the recommendations of the Leitch Report, which primarily advised funding as a solution to the skills problem.
Timms said: "A whole panoply of things need to be done to provide people with the skills they need."
Information security consultant David Lacey said reliance on university education to give the right balance of computer science skills necessary for a job in IT is inadequate.
He said: "At the moment the only real education available is at university but training is the key, not [university] qualification. University education in relatively new subject areas, like computer security, is hard because it takes a long time for a discipline to mature, and a lot of feedback to kick it into shape."
Lacey, the former director of information security for Royal Mail, called on the industry to implement staff IT training. "Training in industry is not good - companies just don't pay. [The industry is] just not doing enough. Someone has to put their hand in their pocket and pay for it," he said.
However, Richard Clayton, a security expert at Cambridge University and an adviser to the government's Science and Technology Committee, said it is a mistake to think universities should provide training as opposed to education. "There's a difference between education and training," he said. "Universities teach people how to think about and understand big issues. Training gives skills in, say, programming languages like Cobalt."
Clayton called for more women to be encouraged to enter the IT industry, and also for government backing. "There were more women in computing when I went to university in the 1970s than now. That is a scandal. The fact this is not being addressed at the highest level is also a scandal," he said.
David Evans, government relations manager for the British Computer Society, said the IT industry could sometimes be its own worst enemy in not communicating enthusiasm. "The truth is IT is so important and jobs in IT can be so engaging to work in. We need to believe it and communicate that properly to create a sense of aspiration and a belief that IT can lead to exciting places," said Evans.
Tom Espiner writes for ZDNet UK
Comments
There are 5 comments. Join the discussion
1. Graham Coles
I figured that only a government minister would be stupid enough to suggest that kids need to spend more time on playing computer games as a solution to the skills gap.
What is the minister for stupid ideas going to introduce? 'Gaming Studies' alongside media studies to try and make the education system look better, perhaps lower the exam thresholds yet again so you can get an 'A' with just 38%?
Or perhaps just chuck some more money at it, which given his earlier comments will probably go towards equipping schools with playstations as part of the formal curriculum.
2. Karen Challinor
does he mean "Cobol" and not "Cobalt" ?
bit of an old example to use as well, suppose he could have mentioned "Mumps" instead
3. Jay
sounds like gov are trying to tell ppl what they should do with their lives, mark my words it'll be a long time if ever that the majority of ppl care about 'boring' it jobs, they wana doss in the pub & at art school etc, cant control it.
4. anonymous
So they want to plug the skills gap ! The best way to do this is to take all the IT professionals who have experience and are out of work and pay to retrain them. This way they get dedicated people who know the industry and can work on a multitude of projects.
I've been an IT professional for nearly 20 years, I learnt Cobol, Pascal and others, but I've had to self learn my new skills without any help or assistance.
Now i'm out of work and a company would rather employ a graduate with no working experience and a certificate in some obscure language to program their system and pay them minimum wage rather than employ me who needs paying more, and may need some training, but could add value to a business.
The end result of my moaning is it all comes down to MONEY, companies still do not realise what value IT makes to a company.
5. Radical Meldrew
Forget M$ Flight - there is now a Westminster endorsed 'M$ Minister ' game available. You can control your own minister from your PC! Not only does this improve your IT skills but it will probably improve parliament too Shame it's only a dream!!