Government unveils plans to shake up GCSE and A-Level ICT courses

The government is to overhaul the teaching of ICT at GCSE and A-Level to include more core development skills focused on coding and programming in a bid to close a potential skills gap in the future.

Science and universities minister David Willetts unveiled the plans on Thursday during the British Festival of Science at the University of Bradford.

"There's going to be a live pilot that will transform the IT curriculum away from computer literacy, which we believe many young people can do, towards how they develop software and computational principles; how they can create their own programs," he said, according to Press Association reports.

"I want to see the ability to create software, to write programs. That is one of the key functional skills for the 21st century, and young people going through school, college and university should have the opportunity to generate those skills."

The news was welcomed by many in the industry. Jim Norton, president of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, said that the UK should implement these changes as soon as possible.

"This is excellent news and exactly what we have been campaigning for to ensure we have the talent UK Plc needs for the future, while drawing the distinction between digital literacy and the academic discipline of computer science," he said.

Judy Baker, director of the Cyber Security Challenge, added that students need to be taught these skills so that they can eventually help the UK defend against growing cyber threats.

"If we are to plug existing skills gaps and develop the new talent we need, young people should be excited and inspired by the curriculum. Employers in areas like cyber security are currently not finding the talent they need," she said.

"We believe raising interest in computer science and cyber skills in the classroom is critical if the UK hopes to grow a technology-based economy protected by the best security people available."