I would like to share with you a very interesting report which surveys the opportunities and identifies gaps and next steps for young people to create with technology across the UK.
As reported by Nesta, an innovation charity with a mission to help people and organisations bring great ideas to life:
As technology shapes our world, young people need to be able to shape it too. As skills and work become increasingly technologically mediated, the need for digital skills is paramount with some calculating a potential £2 billion loss to the UK economy from unfilled roles requiring such skills.
After several years working with organisations supporting digital making, and with creating with technology set to go mainstream through a forthcoming BBC campaign, this report takes stock of what is happening.
Key Findings:
- 82 per cent of young people say they are interested in digital making. However, half of young people make things with digital technology less than once a week or never.
- Parents are overwhelmingly supportive of digital making. 89 per cent think it is a worthwhile activity for their children. 73 per cent encourage their children to make things with technology.
- We identified 130,800 opportunities to experience digital making provided by the organisations surveyed. This is a long way from providing for the interest shown by 82 per cent of our survey, which represents a possible 8.2 million school age children and young people in the UK.
- Digital making is powered not just by money, but also by volunteers. Two thirds of the organisations identified said they relied on volunteers to do their work.
- Only half of teachers who teach ICT or computing report being confident in teaching the curriculum.
Please see the full report here.