Skills and Knowledge for a Computing Qualification ...

A contact on LinkedIn asked the following question ...
What skills and knowledge should be taught to students studying Computing at 16-19? All ideas welcome. What do you find is the problem when this age range starts work in Industry?
A great question and one that has slightly perplexed education for all the time I have been working in teaching. The reality is that many of our 16-19 students still need to learn (to work) once they leave the classroom and there is no situation where FE is equipped to truly resemble the 'Computing/IT' workplace. Efforts are often admirable - but work has a different immediacy.

If you want your students to succeed the best advice I can offer educators is to:
  • Teach them to learn how to learn, 
  • Help them learn the principles of tech, 
  • Show them that what they are learning will be out of date, 
  • Help them learn to learn new stuff based on the previous three principles 
...  then teach them some current clever stuff that they can use in both Univeristy and Work.

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