Communications of the ACM
Britain's Computer Science Courses Failing to Give Workers Digital Skills
Too many ICT teachers have limited knowledge of key skills such as computer programming, according to a British report released last month.
Credit: UTPB
Britain is facing a shortage of workers with programming skills, fuelled by poor-quality training courses in universities and colleges, which has left firms in a range of fields struggling to recruit.
Leading companies say they require staff at a senior level to be computer literate, combining digital skills with the ability to lead a team. But they face delays in hiring the right staff, or have to give new employees extensive training because many computer science courses are nothing more than "sausage factories."
Ian Wright, the chief engineer for vehicle dynamics with the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team, says: "There's definitely a shortage of the right people. What we've found is that somebody spot on in terms of the maths can't do the software; if they're spot on in terms of the software, they can't do the maths."
In higher education, some universities and colleges have been criticised by businesses for running a significant number of "dead-end" courses in computer science, with poor prospects of employment for those enrolled. Figures for the graduate class of 2010 show computer science graduates have the highest unemployment rate of any undergraduate degree, at 14.7%.
From The Guardian
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