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Why IT education is bottom of the class

Posted on 7 Nov 2006 at 17:11

The universities' hard line has been slammed by private sector careers experts, but higher education is keen to groom the smartest students, and they think that's best done by accepting students with maths and physics, especially in the light of computer science tutors bemoaning poor numeracy among applicants. Nevertheless, 20,000 graduates pass through the turnstiles each year, but even then they face an uphill battle.

For all its whining about the quantity of new recruits, the industry is failing to hire computing graduates and properly develop raw talent. According to the Higher Education Statistics Authority, last year's computer science graduates had the highest unemployment rate of any subject at 11%, against an average of less than 6%. This could be a reflection that computing graduates aren't ready for the working world, but most industries don't have ready-made experts rolling off the education conveyor belt.

"On the one hand, industry needs better graduates, but it isn't necessarily employing and recruiting from the graduates that are there, so it's a catch-22. Over the past few years, the treadmill of improving employees' skill through development has been lost," says Ovum analyst Phil Codling. "Increasingly, there's too much lateral development, taking the Chelsea approach to chequebook signing new talent as opposed to the old Manchester United idea of developing talent. The industry should get development programmes back on track; otherwise, even if universities produced ideal graduates, there'll always be a void."

There are at least moves afoot to bridge the gap between academia and industry. Lancaster University Management School is among 600 global colleges on the SAP University Alliance Program, which gives business and IT students the chance to gain hands-on experience of real-world business management applications. The project supports classroom education by enabling the faculty to reinforce core lessons through simulation and business games, and hopefully to improve employability and starting salary.

"We also need to be following the lead we see coming from China, where there's much more integration between the education sector and the industry. Over there, it's commonplace to come out of university with two qualifications - one academic and one professional," said professor Truch of Lancaster University. "So you'll have a background, but also a Microsoft certificate that might make you more employable."

What is certain is that teenagers considering a career in IT deserve better from Britain's schools, universities and industry. They're practically working against each other, which provides a climate of confusion that's unfair on everyone involved. Universities and schools need to liaise better to make sure computer science students understand what's expected and what will be taught. The industry too should encourage students, possibly working with universities, and must accept they have a role to play in polishing graduates into employees. After all, it's the industry that will suffer most from the widening skills gap in the years to come.