Follow Brits, say techies

Moves by the UK Government to include programming as a core subject for children aged 5 and over is what New Zealand needs to be doing, according to tech leaders such as Orion Health chief executive Ian McRae and Microsoft director of developer experience Nigel Parker.

This would help prepare kids for the work environment as well as minimise the ICT skills shortage.

With programming and coding now compulsory in UK schools from the age of 5 up, and many in New Zealand's tech industry pushing for increased programming skills in schools, it seems only a matter of time before New Zealand follows suit to some degree.

According to Parker, a lot of students were looking to other options outside of the school system, and teaching themselves to code where their schools either did not teach the subject, or where other programmes were better than those offered under the school curriculum.

Companies such as Orion Health have already been working to come up with creative solutions, with the company announcing last month that it would invest $100,000 into five university scholarships for ICT students.

McRae said there needed to be more school programmes similar to the company's own new Codeworx programme, which provides online forums with tools and industry expert chat to encourage students.

"We believe if more students are bitten by the coding bug then they will ultimately become the engine room of a revitalised New Zealand economy and Codeworx is an enabler for this," McRae said.

There are a number of courses outside of the classroom, taught by industry experts, however the issue in New Zealand seems to be in the classroom, with a huge number of schools still not offering programming or coding as an option.

Computing boot-up for UK schoolchildren

What's changing?
The UK government has overhauled the way it teaches computing to children by adding mandatory programming classes.

Why is this special?
The UK is the first G20 nation to put computer science at the heart of its curriculum.

Why are they doing it?
The country is projected to have a shortage of 249,000 workers for technologically skilled jobs by 2020.

Will it work?
When kids reach 14, it will be up to them to choose whether to continue studying the subject.