Back to school: why The Telegraph took over a classroom to inspire the next generation of technologists
In the first of a new series, Carol Johnson, IT Director at The Telegraph, reveals how a Women in Tech group keen to stoke interest in Technology careers ended up in charge of a classroom.
“Why did I think this was a good idea?”, was probably the thought that most of us had, as we hopped off the tube and headed down to the school. After several months of thoughts and discussion, it was finally happening.
Working in a technology department, we’ve all become acutely aware of the impact that a lack of tech skills and diversity (particularly females) is having on the industry. The European Commission reports that the Continent will have a shortfall of 900,000 IT professionals by 2020, and that the UK has the lowest percentage of female engineering professionals in the EU (13% STEM). Whilst it’s great to see so much being done at a teen or mums level, there is still something fundamentally missing. How do the future technologists (because it’s not all about code), learn about the roles that exist today, let alone the ones that don’t yet exist? How do you demonstrate to schools and parents the potential of future roles and encourage them into STEM if they don’t know what opportunities that might bring? Is STEM the be-all and end-all to our technology challenges? Questions, questions, questions!
I’ve been running a small Women in Tech support group in our organisation. During one of our Lean Coffee sessions, we identified a number of areas that staff wanted to discuss or get involved in. By far the biggest were pipeline development and volunteering. So we thought: “how about combining the two”. Phil Hammond (who is an absolute legend) runs The Telegraph’s volunteering programme. I approached him with a thought. Watching his face light up and both realising what an amazing proposal we had, he knew instantly what he was going to do to make it a reality. For the first time, we would look to run a volunteering scheme that centred on the real-life job skills we use on a daily basis.
The first step was to find a school that would be willing to participate. With Phil’s experience, he knew exactly where to start. With my co-director Cat Wildman (who was armed, as usual, with an abundance of ideas), Phil and I met with the headmistress of a local school. It’s a strange feeling to be back at school in the headmistress’s office after a significant number of years! The first impression of the school as we entered was unexpected (although to be frank, I’m not sure quite what I was expecting). The feeling was a good one. The children were polite and happy, the school was colourful, inviting and full of positive energy. This was going to be great!
The battle to win hearts & minds
However, what followed took us all by surprise. We were all buzzing with excitement as we discussed our ideas, but when we finished, the headmistress had a worried look on her face. After her feedback, so did we.
We were told that parents were naturally concerned about the safety and security of their children using technology. There were stories of children using technology in a way that was either alien or scary to adults. This in turn meant that they were unlikely to encourage the use of technology.
Whilst the feedback was shocking to hear, it was exactly that sort of reaction that had inspired us originally and prompted us to ask another of those questions: “how do we bridge the gap between today and the future?”
Taking the next generation on a journey of tech discovery
Our aim was to show how technology will affect all our lives in the future. That we will all be using technology in our jobs, in some way or another — but that having a technology job doesn’t mean you need to code. Consider also that many jobs of the future don’t yet exist. How then, can we prepare the next generation when so many of them are not taking a STEM path? How can we show the technologists of the future that their personality and characteristics can lead them to great careers? How do we help parents understand the possibilities and encourage their child to become more than just the next Kardashian or the next Neymar?
And so it was born! After a couple of meetings with the school and further sharing our ideas back in the office, we agreed on the outreach programme that we’d run. We called it “Technology For Everyone”. We would start in 5 weeks time with a class takeover for 6 weeks. Now we had to prepare our volunteers.
More in the series: 2.Teaching Kanban to 10-year-olds, 3.Challenges, Dilemmas & Decisions, 4.Will we be able to deliver the MVP?
Carol Johnson is IT Director at The Telegraph. Follow her @JohnsonCsdo
