After the debate the other night on twitter, I proposed the idea of a FreeSchool for extra-curricular programming guidance.
I’ve spoken to both Momentum and Belfast Metropolitan College about how they can support this and both seem keen to help industry find the software developers they need. Momentum and the colleges have some experience in this with their Software Professionals Course that ran in previous years, funded by DEL. It was designed to take graduates from non-IT backgrounds and give them the vocational skills (over 6 months) to have a sustainable career in software. This is, in theory, similar to other courses – such as the Rapid Advancement Programme (RAP, originally by BIC Systems) and the Advanced Vocational Training in Information Technology course (AVTIT, originally by the University of Ulster). These courses were popular pre Bubble 1.0 but seem to have fallen by the wayside even though we seem to be heading for a larger (and slightly more sustainable) Bubble 2.0.
We’re meeting at 1 pm today, in Starbucks at Cornmarket, to generally see what level of interest there is in industry lobbying for a renewed commitment to turning non-IT graduates and non-graduates into professional software developers using an industry-focused vocational course.
If you can’t be there, comment!
I’m firmly of the belief that we not only need to teach programming, but from the start, that the best programming practices are taught. Teaching people the basics might be enough to get them interested, but if they don’t learn the best techniques from the start it might as well be a waste of time. It might take a bit longer, but if a job’s worth doing…
I absolutely agree, And I think having industry folk intimately involved with a taught course to really express the value of methodologies is really important. It’s evident to me that industry engagement has been lacking in the past.
Matt, you were trying to fix this 2 years ago!! I give up. Truly.
The current undersupply was recognised five years ago and we’re still waiting for an appropriate forward-thinking response.