Teachers must receive better IT training, warns IET

Government plans to establish a new IT school curriculum will fail unless teachers receive better training, Europe’s largest body of engineers has warned.

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) welcomed proposals to change how IT is taught to GCSE and A-level pupils, but said teachers need a higher level of technical skills if the initiative is to be a success.

David Willets, the science minister, launched the “Behind the Screen” scheme earlier this month which aims to make computing lessons more focused on programming and software development.

Martyn Thomas from the IET said: “This is an excellent and overdue change and it is vital that it is backed up with professional training and support for the teachers who will deliver the new curriculum.

“We have the opportunity this decade, with smartphones and apps, to inspire a new generation of software engineers in the way that the BBC Micro did in the 1980s. But it will be important to teach students that professional software engineering is as big a step up from school programming as civil engineering is from Lego.”

The IET’s Alan Berry is worried that teachers will not be able to cover the complex matter of computer programming.

“It is a highly technical skill and you need someone who is qualified. It is quite an academic subject and it is fast moving field,” said Berry.

“It takes a lot of time and effort and you cannot just learn it by picking up a book. You need to have hands on experience.”

However, Martin Harvey of e-skills UK, which is devising the new curriculum, sought to reassure that teachers would be helped to teach the new skills.

Harvey said: “There will be resources and support for teachers. We do not really know yet because it is still in development, but there will be a website for students and teachers and employers will be contributing to support teachers.”

Other proposed changes for new GCSE and A-level IT qualifications include teaching systemic thinking and logic.

Coursework will aim to build analytical, problem solving and critical thinking skills and exams promise to be tougher.

The “Behind the Screen” programme is being developed in collaboration with several employers from the IT and business sectors including IBM, Sainsburys, John Lewis and Deloitte.

These companies will be involved in the curriculum by setting challenges for pupils designed to encourage creativity, team work and entrepreneurship.

The existing curriculum has been heavily criticised, including by Google chairman Eric Schmidt, for teaching how to use software rather than showing how it is made.

Karen Price, chief executive of e-skills UK, the sector skills council for business and IT, said: “Young people are digital natives yet experience shows that they are being turned-off IT study and IT careers in the classroom.”

E-skills UK estimates that half a million new entrants are needed to enter the IT sector in the next five years. It also claims employers fear a crisis on the horizon over a shortage of home-grown employees.

The new curriculum will be trialled in 20 schools by 100 GCSE pupils and a small number of teachers across the country from mid-November.

It will run until June next year when it is hoped the pilot scheme can then be transferred to A-level students.

Once the new curriculum is designed it will be inspected by qualifications regulator Ofqual.

Harvey said that e-skills UK would be targeting September 2013 for the new GCSE and A-levels to be made available for teaching in schools.

Lewis Dyson