Skills Knowledge Enhancement in Computer Science

Vocational qualification

In Liverpool

Price on request

Description

  • Type

    Vocational qualification

  • Location

    Liverpool

  • Duration

    8 Weeks

  • Start date

    Different dates available

Overview
“Computing is not about computers any more. It is about living.”
- N. Negroponte
“You know something is wrong when you have a million young people unemployed and 100,000 jobs vacant in IT.”
- I. Livingstone
This course is for graduates who want to teach Computing/Computer Science but whose degree is not a direct match, or whose specialist subject knowledge needs deepening prior to training for qualified teacher status (QTS/PGCE). It’s part of a government funded scheme to enhance subject-specific skills and knowledge, hence it will be offered free of charge to applicants who meet the pre Initial Teacher Training (ITT) eligibility criterion. We currently have 10 funded places available. Those who do not meet this criterion can opt to do a CPD Course on Computer Science for Schools, that we also offer. For more information on this, please contact Dr David Reid reidd@hope.ac.uk.
We have carefully designed an eight week course for Computing/Computer Science that covers the new curriculum and teaches Computing skills from the ground up in a way that makes it relevant and interesting to school children. We believe that there is a vast untapped creative potential that the old curriculum is stifling. This is your chance to make a difference.
Even during the current times of economic austerity a large skills gap continues to develop. Increasing numbers of technically skilled people are needed in ever increasingly diverse roles. Yet the numbers of graduates and school leavers with the relevant skill set to fill these posts continues to fall. There is a critical technological and scientific skills shortage. As a country we are in danger of becoming irrelevant in the new technological age. This has massive implications for the economic and scientific wellbeing of the UK. The school curriculum is changing to meet these needs, the demand for Computing teachers skyrocketing, however there simply are not enough qualified teachers to teach this new...

Facilities

Location

Start date

Liverpool (Merseyside)
See map
Hope Park, L16 9JD

Start date

Different dates availableEnrolment now open

About this course

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Curriculum
The course is taught by experienced Computer Science lecturers. Lessons will formally take place on Wednesdays 5.00pm - 8.00pm for a duration of 8 weeks.
Topics will include:
Computing Concepts and Programming with Processing.
Advanced Concepts and Programming with Python.
Data structures and algorithms in Python and Processing.
Programming for the Web.
Game Programming.
Mobile and Small Devices Programming.
Some Useful...

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Reviews

Subjects

  • Computing
  • School
  • Industry

Course programme

<div id="tab2" class="tab grid_8 alpha hide-on-small" style="display: block;"> <div class="courseLinks hide-on-medium-down"> <img src="/media/liverpoolhope/styleassets/cssimages/media,975,en.gif" alt="print Icon" style="width : 24px; height : 24px; "> <span><a href="javascript:window.print()">print this page</a></span> <span class="st_sharethis_custom" st_processed="yes"><a href="#">share this course</a></span> </div> <h2>About the sector</h2> <h2>Demand</h2> <ul> <li>Employment in the IT industry will grow at 2.19% per annum, this is nearly five times faster than the UK average.</li> <li>The IT &amp; Telecoms industry directly contributed 9% towards the UK’s total Gross Value Added (GVA)*. Optimisation of ICT could generate an additional £50 billion of GVA across the UK economy over the next 5-7 years.</li> <li>The economic contribution of the Internet is now said to be worth an estimated £100 billion to the UK economy (7.2% of GDP).</li> <li>In Europe over 7 million people work in the IT sector</li> <li>Over half a million new entrants are required to fill IT &amp; Telecoms professional job roles in the UK over the next five years.</li> <li>By the end of 2015 it is estimated that there will be a European deficit of 700000 skilled IT workers</li> <li>Almost one-in-five young people not in education, employment or training (Neets) believe their computer skills are not good enough for the job they want to do.</li> <li>17% of young people said they believed they would be in work if they could use a computer better</li> </ul> <h2>Supply</h2> <ul> <li>Despite a 13% resurgence from 2007 to 2009, the number of all applicants to Computing and Telecoms related Higher Education courses in the UK has declined by 44% since 2001.</li> <li>In schools and Further Education Computing A-levels taken have declined by 60% since 2003 and now represent just 0.5% of all A-levels taken across the UK.</li> <li>The number of ICT A-levels taken across the UK had declined by 34% from 2003 to 2009, but has stabilised in 2010 and now constitutes 1.4% of all A-levels sat.</li> <li>The uptake of IT-related GCSE courses has declined by 57% since 2005.&nbsp;</li> </ul> <h2>Cause</h2> <ul> <li>Many believe In the last few years, the way ICT has been taught in schools has stilted the imaginations of the young by boring them with the tedium of learning to use specific applications, instead of encouraging them to be creative with how they use technology and gain more widely applicable skills.</li> <li>Qualified IT staff often drift away from their areas of special expertise toward other activities. The number of computer science teachers qualified to train students in the subject is set to drop to an all-time low in the next couple of years.</li> </ul> <h2>Effect</h2> <ul> <li>The sector suffers from a damaging&nbsp; stereotypical image that it is only for “geeky guys”</li> <li>Women are massively under represented at all levels of IT</li> <li>There is a so called “generational loss” of talent in industry and academia</li> <li>Nine out of ten firms suffering IT &amp; Telecoms related skills shortages are experiencing delays in the development of new products or services.</li> <li>The UK has plummeted from being one of the most Computer/IT savvy country in the world in 1980s-90s) to being ranked 23rd in terms of computer literacy</li> <li>The government is “scrapping” ICT for more relevant and interesting Computing/Computer Science courses in schools. However, there is a massive shortage of qualified teachers for this new curriculum.</li> </ul> <h2>What does all this mean?</h2> <p>Even during the current times of economic austerity an increasingly large skills gap continues to develop. Increasing numbers of technically skilled people are needed in ever increasingly diverse roles. Yet the number of graduates and school leavers with the relevant skill set to fill these posts continues to fall. There is a critical technological and scientific skills shortage. As a country we are in danger of becoming irrelevant in the new technological age. This has massive implications for the economic and scientific wellbeing of the UK. The curriculum is changing to meet these needs, the demand for Computing teachers skyrocketing, however we don’t have enough qualified teachers to teach this new curriculum.</p> <p>Our Subject Knowledge Enhancement courses are intensive programmes for graduates:<br>• who want to teach Computing/Computer Science in Schools but whose degree is not a direct match <br>• who specialist subject knowledge needs deepening prior to training for qualified teacher status (QTS).</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div>

Skills Knowledge Enhancement in Computer Science

Price on request