New research from BJSS and YouGov reveals more needs to be done to help teachers prepare the next generation to take on jobs in the digital sector.

A new survey from BJSS, the award-winning delivery-focused IT consultancy, and YouGov reveals that 67% of teachers throughout Britain feel that they can’t effectively teach coding to children aged between eight and fifteen as they don’t have the right skills or tools.

The survey, conducted with 500 primary and secondary school teachers from schools across Britain, also revealed that 83% of teachers believe it’s important for the Department of Education (DOE) to provide better training with (39%) stating that they do not have access to adequate IT and software to teach coding. 76% also felt that it was important for technology companies to engage more with local schools to help address the issue.

Teachers surveyed also felt that it was important to:

• Provide coding lessons for children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds (71%)
• Provide extra teaching support for underachieving children in this subject (65%)
• Subsidise personal computing equipment for children aged eight to fifteen (60%).

Glynn Robinson, managing director at BJSS, said: “To safeguard the UK’s digital competitiveness, it is crucial that primary and secondary school teachers are properly equipped and resourced to teach the digital and coding skills that will be required by the time today’s schoolchildren enter the workforce.”

BJSS has partnered with Turinglab, an organisation dedicated to teaching coding skills to British schoolchildren, and Ada, the National College for Digital Skills, to deliver the UK’s first creative coding platform aligned with the national computing curriculum. Over 1,000 pupils have already benefited from free Turinglab learning, 100 of which have received a scholarship from BJSS. A national rollout has been committed to for 2018 and BJSS is looking not only to increase its scholarship fund but also to extend the training to teachers.

Glynn Robinson, concludes: “76% of teachers we surveyed felt that it was important for technology companies in the private sector to engage more with local schools to help. We believe that companies like BJSS have a role to play in ensuring that the skills of the next generation of IT talent are properly developed. We are already helping the students and are excited to extend this to teachers as well.”