This week is Computer Science Education Week – dedicated to inspiring school-age children to learn computer science, advocating for equity and accessibility in computer science education and celebrating the contributions of students, teachers and partners in the field. As tech startup and scaleup specialists, we have a lot invested in the next generation of candidates coming into the tech workforce. Unfortunately, right now the education system in place isn’t doing nearly enough to equip young people with the skills, resources and general education to fill jobs of the future.
According a YouGov survey, 75% of secondary school teachers say they fear a long-term skill gap if there isn’t a concerted effort to boost education around AI and computer science – with 64% of STEM teachers saying they had limited access to CS resources. There’s been some effort to tackle this, with pretty hefty bursaries available for trainee secondary school teachers, but there’s still a long way to go.
And whilst Computer Science Education Week is aimed at young people, it’s never too late to keep learning and growing your skill set. Regardless of who you are, computer science skills should be accessible for all, so here’s a few key resources to help you along the way…
Tech Skills is a not-for-profit organisation who are responsible for Tech Industry Gold, which is the industry accreditation for education and training in the digital/tech sectors. They offer intensive training programmes in subjects such as Software Development, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Software Testing, TechOps and many more. They aim to create partnerships between employers and educators to develop the tech landscape in the UK and support the digital industries by supporting the education of a new generation of candidates.
Code First Girls is currently the largest provider of free coding courses for women in the UK and have taught three times as many women to code as the entire UK university undergraduate system. Their mission statement is to reduce the gender diversity gap in tech by equipping women with the computer science and tech skills to pursue careers in the tech industry. They run Code Fest annually, an event which brings together their community of members, leaders and partners to discuss and educate on all things coding and tech.
Codecademy was started with the goal of making tech skills accessible for all. Their platform is all about creating an interactive and holistic way of learning, which is engaging for people from all walks of life. They host a massive bank of computer science and tech resources (cheatsheets, news articles, online courses, code challenges, career advice, and so much more), whilst also acting as a community of people in tech all over the UK.
Similar to Codecademy, Future Learn offer a variety of online IT and computer science courses, ranging from beginner to advanced level, which are all led by leading tech experts. Their focus is social learning – learning which is revolved around community and collaboration – and they’re concerned with accessibility and transformative learning. From coding to cyber security to IoT to AI and robotics, they cover just about everything you could possibly want.
SheCodes, similarly to Code First Girls, is all about addressing the gender gap in the tech industry, but is specifically focussed on the coding sector. As they cite on their website, women currently hold only 25% of coding jobs and earn 30% less money than men. SheCodes looks to address this imbalance by offering hands-on workshops and training courses to women in the UK. They cover Product Development, Product Design and Product Management.
These are just a few of the incredible resources out there to help people get into coding, computer science and just about any tech sector out there! Anyone and everyone should feel empowered and encouraged to learn these skills – so we can fill the jobs of the future with a truly diverse and inclusive workforce.
If you’re in the market for a new role in the tech sector, head to our Jobs Board to see all of our live roles or give us a call on 0117 428 0600.
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