Hiring experienced software engineers is hard — Part two: Appetite for higher education
In part one of this study, I shared data which shows that fewer and fewer people are opting to study Computer Science. There are a number of reasons we could potentially attribute this to, which I’ll share in this post.
The 2008 global recession
We can see that the total number of new students studying any subject in HE dipped in the 2007/08 academic year by approximately 2.5%, and by 0.12% as a percentage of total UK population in 2007/08.
The drop in Computer Science students was more dramatic, 10.7% of students in HE studying Computer Science. Since the recession, this figure never bounced back and normalised at an average of 0.15% of UK population studying the subject. It’s unclear why the the recession affected prospective students decisions more than the general student population.
A student who would have attended in the 2007/08 academic year would have graduated in 2011, and would have 8 years experience today.
Although, one could argue that by not attending university they gained 3 years of practical experience.
Brexit
Data is not currently available from the Higher Education Statistics Agency to draw any conclusions on the effects (if any) of Brexit on the total number of students in higher education. However, immigration from within the EU is down since the vote (interestingly non-EU immigration is up) so from a general workforce population perspective there’s roughly no net change.
Diversification of learning
The world is a very different place today than it was in at the turn of the century. With the speed and availability of the Internet, combined with the maturity and mainstream nature of online educational platforms such as Code Academy, Udemy, and YouTube, we can argue that there is less incentive to go down the traditional education route of higher education. Why spend thousands on university fees when it’s possible to get an online certification for a fraction of the price? The view from employers towards online certifications and qualifications is also improving, with 74% of businesses saying they view all qualifications equally (CBI annual report, 2018).
The analysis in the previous section is focused on Computer Science as a department, which was a defacto-standard point of entry to the industry 20 years ago but today there is more breadth in the courses and departments available at higher education institutions. For example, games design, and web development, which may fall under different departments. Given that as a percentage of total population HE students was quite flat, we can assume that students moved to different departments rather than deciding not to go at all. I.e. we may be seeing skewed Computer Science figures as students move to other departments which provide more tailored education.
Away from traditional institutions, bootcamps such as Makers Academy aimed at developing hands-on skills are now also more common, further diversifying the entry points into the industry. With the advertised promises of often being able to land in industry after graduating from a short course, the appeal is obvious for those without experience as a software engineer. However, whilst valuable, this doesn’t help with providing a short term pipeline of experienced engineers.
Apprenticeships and work experience are also more commonplace. In 2017 The UK government introducing an 0.3% apprenticeship levy to companies with a wage bill of more than £3m to help fund training. Through this initiative the government has committed to an additional 3 million apprenticeship starts in England by 2020. As engineering hiring managers, that means that to yield the benefit from an apprentice we be waiting until 2025 to have a steady increase in experienced engineers.
The annual StackOverflow developer survey found that from 94,703 responses, 75.7% had completed some form of higher education ranging from an associates degree to a doctoral degree and 63.7% of 79,036 responses said their education majored in Computer Science.
Self learning, online courses and more practical methods is a significant way that professional software engineers equip themselves with the skills they need.
Summary
The appetite for higher education was at the exact same level in 2015 as it was in 2000 as a proportion of population. With more institutions, a larger breadth of courses and a higher standard of education, we aren’t seeing a higher percentage of the population enrol. Rather, we’re observing that software engineers in particular are life-long learners, and with alternative means of education now widely available, we are seeing fewer Computer Science graduates today versus 15 years ago.
In part three, I’ll begin to explore the implications of having fewer academically qualified software engineers in an increasingly active market.
What do you think, is higher education still a relevant prerequisite for hiring experienced software engineers? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, I’d love to see some healthy discussion around the topic.
Thanks for reading.
The thoughts and opinions in this post are shared with my employers, they just don’t know it yet. Just kidding — something something legal jargon here. For some of my other ramblings, you can follow me on Twitter.
