• Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Digital technology
  • Cloud
  • Data analytics
  • Digital leaders
  • IoT
  • Opinion
  • Events
  • Resources
  • SMB Spotlight
  • Newsletters
  • Sign in
  • Events
    • Follow V3 Events

      Sign up to receive email alerts about our events

      Sign up
  • Resources
    • V3resources 120x194
      Network Security Forensics For GDPR Compliance

      An effective network security forensics strategy can assist an organization in providing key compliance-related details as part of any post-incident GDPR investigation.

      Download
      V3resources 120x194
      10 ways to increase productivity with managed Office 365

      For businesses large and small, relying on a cloud-based collaboration and productivity suite such as Microsoft Office 365 is becoming the norm. Enhancing productivity in your organisation is vital to get ahead in 2017 - and using Office 365 can help, if it's used right...

      Download
      Find resources
      Search by title or subject area
      View all resources
  • SMB Spotlight
  • Sign in
  •  
    •  

      You are currently accessing V3 .co.uk via your Enterprise account.

      Personalise your on site experience

      Download and use the apps

      Access your subscription from outside of the office

      Get relevant news and insight straight to your inbox

      • Sign in
     
      • Newsletters
      • Account details
      • Contact support
      • Sign out
     
  • Follow us
    • RSS
    • Twitter
    • Newsletters
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
  • Register
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Digital technology
  • Cloud
  • Data analytics
  • Digital leaders
  • IoT
  • Opinion
 
  •  

    You are currently accessing V3 .co.uk via your Enterprise account.

    Personalise your on site experience

    Download and use the apps

    Access your subscription from outside of the office

    Get relevant news and insight straight to your inbox

    • Sign in
 
    • Newsletters
    • Account details
    • Contact support
    • Sign out
 
V3.co.uk
  • Skills

Teachers must excite youngsters with IT lessons, urges CompTIA

Skills association CompTIA laments not being a part of curriculum's initial planning process

Comptia is an IT skills trade association
  • Michael Passingham
  • Michael Passingham
  • @MrPassingham
  • 06 March 2014
  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  •  
  •  
  • Send to  
0 Comments

IT skills trade association CompTIA has said the fate of the UK's new computing curriculum will rely as much on teachers convincing youngsters of the benefits and excitement of IT as the government introducing the new teaching regime.

Speaking to V3, senior CompTIA executives also said that more specific targets about how the curriculum is taught should be introduced.

CEO Todd Thibodeaux said while the new curriculum was vital, a change in attitude towards IT, lead by the teachers in the classrooms, was central to its success.

"The kids have to be excited about it. You have to communicate earlier in the process to kids about what the opportunities are [in IT] and what sort of salaries you get, and the work environment.

"We focus so much on the working and training, they don't get excited about it."

Thibodeaux acknowledged, though, that providing adequate training for teachers was important to in order to achieve this: "If they want to make one big change, I would certainly suggest doing much more on training the teachers."

The comments echo those made by Raspberry Pi last week when its director of education questioned whether the Department for Education was taking the challenge seriously. He added that CompTIA figures showed that teachers have a significant impact on the results computing students achieve.

Regarding the new curriculum itself, CompTIA vice president for Europe, Lucy Ireland, said the organisation would have liked to have had more input into the initial planning of the curriculum, which was dominated by BCS and big tech firms such as Google and Microsoft.

"There were a number of consultation meetings that took place and I think that maybe there was an issue on our part with not being at the right place at the right time," she said. "Equally, I think some of the consultation requires you to be very embedded in the process before they start, which is a bit chicken and egg and can be a bit difficult."

She said CompTIA had "just missed the boat" on the initial introduction of the computing curriculum, but said the association is working closely with many other organisations encouraging skill-building activities such as apprenticeships.

The syllabus for the computing curriculum is fairly broad, giving teachers a fair amount of flexibility in how they teach their lessons.

Asked what CompTIA would like to see in the new curriculum, Ireland said: "We need to make sure people are enthused and engaged by IT. While we want good learning outcomes that have an end goal of making people employable, we also don't want to put people into the situation we have in the past, where ICT was all about desktop computing, which turned people off."

The need for a new generation of tech savvy youngsters is key to the government, as it launches several campaigns to encourage children to learn IT skills, although this has run in difficulties. Vendors are also pushing efforts to teach key IT skills.

  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  •  
  •  
  • Send to  
  • Topics
  • Skills
  • Government
  • Comptia
  • Education
  • Raspberry Pi

V3 Latest

BT plan to close down conventional fixed-line phone network by 2025 and go all-IP
BT plan to close down conventional fixed-line phone network by 2025 and go all-IP

BT wants to make the public switched telephone network history within eight years

  • Communications
  • 20 April 2018
Facebook Login hijacked by hidden web trackers, claim security researchers
Facebook Login hijacked by hidden web trackers, claim security researchers

Personal data being purloined by third parties via Facebook Login API

  • Security
  • 20 April 2018
Apple: we've no plans to merger iOS and MacOS
Apple: we've no plans to merger iOS and MacOS

MacOS and iOS are better off apart, says CEO Tim Cook

  • Desktops
  • 20 April 2018
Oracle: Java SE 8 business users must buy a licence from January next year
Oracle: Java SE 8 business users must buy a licence from January next year

Or they'll no longer be entitled to updates and bug patches

  • Developer
  • 20 April 2018
Back to Top

Most read

Oracle: Java SE 8 business users must buy a licence from January next year
Oracle: Java SE 8 business users must buy a licence from January next year
Avast reveals more information detailing how hackers compromised CCleaner
Avast reveals more information detailing how hackers compromised CCleaner
BT plan to close down conventional fixed-line phone network by 2025 and go all-IP
BT plan to close down conventional fixed-line phone network by 2025 and go all-IP
  • Contact
  • Marketing solutions
  • Enterprise IT Events
  • About
  • Terms & conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Newsletters
  • Facebook
  • YouTube

© Incisive Business Media (IP) Limited, Published by Incisive Business Media Limited, New London House, 172 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5QR, registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 09177174 & 09178013

Digital publisher of the year
Digital publisher of the year 2010, 2013, 2016 & 2017