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Digital Skills, teaching, teachers, BCS

Digital skills in schools: Who's teaching the teachers?

21 October 2014

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The House of Lords' Digital Skills Committee will hear from teachers, educationalists and technology training experts on Tuesday 21 October, as part of their inquiry into ICT, competitiveness and skills.

Witnesses

Tuesday, 21 October, Committee Room 2, Palace of Westminster

At 10.15am

  • Dr Bill Mitchell, BCS Director, Academy of Computing, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
  • Professor Simon Peyton Jones, Chair, Computing At Schools
  • Charlie Taylor, Chief Executive, National College for Teaching and Leadership
  • Sir Andrew Carter, Head Teacher, South Farnham School

At 11.15am

  • Jack Evans, Specialist Support Teacher (Computing & DT Co-ordinator), Kingsmead Primary School
  • Mark Chambers, Chief Executive Officer, Naace
  • Miles Berry, Principal Lecturer, Computing Education, University of Roehampton

Possible questions

The Committee will quiz witnesses on how the teaching workforce is being effectively trained to pass on the digital skills necessary for the UK’s future. It will also cover areas such as the computing curriculum, the number of computing teachers in schools, and out-of-school learning.

Other questions the witnesses will face include:

  • How is the current teaching workforce preparing for the new curriculum?
  • How many more specialists computing teachers do we need?
  • Are they being trained effectively?
  • Who is training the trainers?
  • Is current on-the-job digital training working properly?
  • Do we need to start teaching ICT as a core curriculum subject?
  • Do we need to give computing GCSEs more weight in school?
  • What role do out-of-school-hours learning opportunities play?

Further information