Posted by:
on 17, Aug, 2010
Teaching is a profession in crisis, particularly in my area, Computing. The problem that we face is that as the technology and the skills we wish our young people to have, progress and change, we need teachers who can inspire, lead, and teach these skills. How do we attract teachers with these skills into the profession.
Parents would, I am sure, agree with me that computing skills will open doors and give access to lucrative jobs and opportunities for their children. We want our children prepared for the future, we want them inspired and enabled to use the new technologies that are available today or will be in their futures.
In computing we have a whole set of new areas for assessment for our fifteen year olds from Programming and Computer Science to Digital Infrastructure and Electronics. These new areas will spread to 16 and 17 year olds over the next two years. These are vital skills in a sector that will help New Zealand's global competitiveness.
Skills Shortage Slows Recovery summarises "discussions with information and communications industry leaders and chief information officers (CIOs) across Australia and New Zealand" showing how the IT skills shortage is slowing the economic recovery.
In October last year the Ministry of Economic Development conducted a survey into the IT skills shortage - ICT Industry Skills Gaps and Ultra Fast Broadband Roll-out Skill Requirements - and found that “83% of companies surveyed found difficulties in recruiting qualified, skilled and experienced staff, and it was having a medium to major effect on their businesses.” Brett O'Riley the NZICT Chief Executive had this to say when the report was released. "These roles are essential to New Zealand's drive to improve productivity and also generate foreign exchange."
