By Elizabeth Sparrow, Archives of IT Trustee.
We are very pleased to announce that we have launched a range of resources for schools, teachers, students and their parents. These include a series of new careers web pages and downloadable lesson plans and presentations aimed at KS2 to KS4 levels, plus accompanying teachers’ notes.
Although young people are prolific users of technology, many do not consider the idea that they could have a career working with or developing future technology. They don’t understand what opportunities are open to them or think it will be boring and involve just sitting at a desk all day. Teachers equally can find it difficult to keep track of career opportunities for their students in such a fast moving and innovative sector.
We hope that our ‘What about a career in technology’ web pages and presentation will give students and teachers an understanding of the many different roles in technology today. They include advice from a wide range of UK IT Industry experts featured in our archives to help students see that a career in technology is open to all and that it’s about creating the future.
As well as our career focused resources, there are several lesson plans that tie into the curriculum and show the development and impact of technologies such as mobile phones, microprocessors and computers on society. The lessons and teachers’ notes include suggested activities, video clips and fun and interesting facts. By demonstrating the impact that technology has had on today’s society, we hope we can help students see that they too could have a career that could change our future society.
Encouraging youngsters to embrace their technology and digital skills could lead them to great careers and it also supports the Government’s Careers Strategy which states that it wants ‘every person, no matter what their background and no matter where they are from, to be able to build a rewarding career’.
In developing the resources, we sought advice from teachers by working with a number of schools, the Computing at School (CAS) network and the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (WCIT). We have also demonstrated the lessons at three careers fairs and have received positive feedback from teachers and pupils.
All of the resources, which have been designed in accordance with the Government’s Careers Strategy of 2017 and the Gatsby Benchmarks for schools produced in 2018, are available to download on our Resources page (archivesit.org.uk/school-resources) and the Times Educational Supplement (TES) Resources site (www.tes.com/teaching-resource/what-about-a-career-in-technology-ks3-4-12235035)
