ADDRESSING GENDER
BALANCE IN COMPUTING
PARENTS RECOMMEND UNIVERSITY
OVER APPRENTICESHIPS
Parents are more likely to advise their child to go to
university than to take a degree-level apprenticeship,
with middle-class parents more likely than working-class
parents to offer this advice, according to a poll published
by the Sutton Trust in June.
More than 1,000 parents of children aged 5-16 who
attend school were asked how likely they’d be to advise
their child to go to university or do a degree-level
apprenticeship. Slightly more parents (31%) said they’d
advise university over an apprenticeship (27%), while 23%
said they thought the two options were equal.
However 42% of middle-class parents said they were
more likely to advise their child to go to university than
undertake an apprenticeship, compared to a quarter
(23%) of working-class parents. Of these, 68% felt that
university offered better career prospects, while 29% felt
they had a lack of knowledge about apprenticeships.
One in five parents (20%) believed that the quality of
some apprenticeships is poor.
The polling also highlights a lack of confidence among
parents when it comes to giving advice on apprenticeships:
28% said they wouldn’t feel confident advising their child
to take an apprenticeship, compared to 18% who were
not confident about giving advice on university.
Sutton Trust research has previously shown a lack of
willingness from teachers to encourage apprenticeships:
64% said they would rarely or never advise a
high- performing student to opt for an apprenticeship,
with 37% citing a lack of information as a reason for this.
The Department for Education has granted £2.4m
in funding for a ‘Gender Balance in Computing’
research project, co-ordinated by the National
Centre for Computing Education (NCCE).
Findings by the University of Roehampton and
Royal Society show that girls currently represent
only 20% of candidates for GCSE computer
science and 10% for A level.
The research project will trial a number of new
initiatives aimed at improving girls’ participation
in computing, involving more than 15,000
students and 550 schools across England in trials
running from 2019–2022 in Key Stages 1-4.
This is one of the programmes associated
with the wider NCCE — as part of an overall £84m
package to improve computing education in
England by providing support for computing
teachers at all levels, from primary to A level.
See
p50 for details of the NCCE’s Computer
Science Accelerator Programme for teachers.
SECOND WAVE OF CAREERS HUBS TO SUPPORT SCHOOLS
A second wave of 18 Careers Hubs, which connect schools and colleges to improve
careers support for young people in their area, has been given the go-ahead by
ministers. This is backed by a further £2.5m in funding and will bring the total to 38 hubs,
covering around a quarter of secondary schools and colleges in England.
They will have access to support and funding, including an expert Hub Lead to help
co-ordinate activity and build networks; a central fund to support employer engagement
activities, and training for a careers leader in each school and college.
Careers Hubs are based on a model first piloted by the Gatsby Foundation and the
North East Local Enterprise Partnership from 2015-17.
“There’s no doubt they will play a pivotal role in helping employers get more involved,”
said Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the CBI.
6 // NEWS ROUND-UP