The number of students taking A-level computing has
fallen by 13.9% over the past 12 months, raising new fears that
young people are being turned off IT as a career.
The number of students taking computing fell from 7,242 in 2005
to 6,233 this time around, reflecting a growing trend for students
to choose arts over technology and scientific subjects.
The decline follows warnings by the CBI earlier this week that
the trend for students to shun scientific subjects is liable to
damage the UK’s position as a world leader in innovation.
Karen Price, chief executive of the public private training
partnership, E-skills UK, warned that the decline in youngsters
studying IT would create a declining recruitment pool for
employers.
“We are going to be in fierce competition with the economies
that are producing IT graduates. But there is still a significant
year-on-year decline in young people choosing IT-related A-level,
GCSEs and degrees,” she said.
The A level results, released by the Joint Council for
Qualifications, show that the number of female students studying
computing is also continuing to decline.
Out of this year’s intake, only 9.6% of computing students were
female, a drop of 11.3% from 2005, raising new concerns about the
gender balance in the profession.
Research by E-skills UK shows that women tend to lose interest
in IT as career unless they can be attracted to the subject at a
young age.
“There is a broader cultural issue,” said Price. “A lot of
science and technology subjects are seen as hard, unattractive and
uncool. It is an endemic problem.”
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