On Attitudes to ICT Careers and Study Among 13-19 Year Olds

As a state, Victoria has been hit pretty hard by the Australia wide decline in ICT enrolments. Between 2002 (peak) and 2012 (trough) Victoria experienced a drop of over 10,000 students in tertiary computer science related degrees. This compares to a decline of 5,600 in NSW and 8,700 in Qld. Percentage wise we are talking declines of 38% (Victoria), 49% (Queensland) and 28% (NSW). Its no wonder that the Victorian Government (Department of State Development, Business and Innovation) has commissioned four reports (2004, 2007, 2009, 2012) investigating career choice and study options among young people. Here are some of the findings, paying attention to noticeable changes from 2009-2012:

Some things don’t change:

• The percentage of students that studied ICT in year 9 or above (remained at 42%)
• Awareness of the term ICT (sits at 40%) – although students had trouble defining what it meant
• Understanding that ICT had career opportunities (67%)
• Interest in studying ICT at a tertiary level (when asked) remains at 41%
• Interest in pursuing a career in ICT (when asked) remains at 46%

Some things do:

• Decline: student interest in working in the ICT sector compared to other sectors (from 35% to 24%)
• Decline: interest in studying ICT (when compared with other courses) from 37% down to 28%
• Increase: students believe they have a better understanding of ICT as a career choice (51% in 2009, 56% in 2012)
• Increase: students believe ICT is recession proof (10% in 2009, 30% in 2012)
• Increase: students thought that delivery of ICT in schools has improved (64% in 2009, to 79% in 2012)

What students are looking for:

• a job they can excel in (83%)
• a job that is in line with their areas of interest (82%)
• a job they’re proud of (78%)
• a secure job (77%)
• a chance to earn good money (75%)
• Summary: students are looking for a job that they will enjoy for many years, one that provides the lifestyle they want to have, is not stressful, one where they are not stuck indoors and behind a desk all day and one that offers a good work/life balance

Influencers:

• Parents (85%) remain the key influencer for career choices and guidance
• People that work in the industry (83%)
• Teachers (71%)
• Work experience in the area (71%)
• Other family members (72%)
• Institution open days/careers fairs (72%)
• Friends and peers (56%) play less of a role, but still a greater role than generic internet sources, media and social media

Perceptions of ICT:

• Students still see ICT as monotonous and desk bound (58% agree)
• Low human interaction (44% agree)
• Geeky and nerdy (30% agree) – these perceptions are formed from teachers that teach the subject, people they know in the industry and impressions they receive from TV. While students are not anti-geek, they don’t necessarily identify with that image.

Positioning: the report then looks at what messages resonate with the ambitions of students in different age category:

• Years 7-8: ICT should be a positive school experience, not tied to career choices but role modelled by adults and fun to engage in
• Years 9-10: at this age, messaging should directly address and alleviate misconceptions about ICT and promote ICT as a gateway to future career choices
• Years 11-12: students need to know the broader skills sets required of tertiary level ICT, outside of the technical expertise – students need reassurance that they are capable of being able to study at a higher level.

Communications and Information:

• Ensure that outward facing communications resonate with students – this includes both rationally (i.e. salary, career options, in demand industry etc) and emotionally (fun career, stay abreast of tech trends, fulfilling career)
• Clarify misconceptions: ICT does not need to be desk bound, it has group work, it is social, it is global etc
• Convey the diversity of available careers: ideally in ‘day in the life’ style promotions
• Disseminate information via school networks (careers advisors, teachers and parents)
• Work on gaining mainstream multimedia attention for campaigns

The role of industry:

• The challenge with this issue is representing diversity of career choice in a targeted fashion that meets the diverse interests of students at different age levels. Industry can play a greater role in schools and participating in careers expos.

Industry’s own actions will have a significant impact on addressing educational and broader workforce issues over time, and as such, they along with schools, education providers, and the Government, must continue to take joint responsibility and ownership for attracting people to the industry to achieve positive outcomes for the sector as a whole

Promoting computer science careers to high school students

Article: New Image for Computing, Report on Market Research (April 2009) (Association for Computing Machinery)

This 2009 report outlines market research and initial message testing conducted by two New York marketing and communications firms (BBMG and Global Strategy Group). In 2008 the project surveyed some 1,400 college bound high school students (age 13-17) to:

• assess the current attitudes toward computer science as a college major and future career choice
• assess the same attitudes along different lines (gender, Hispanic, African American)
• develop messages that portray computer science in a variety of ways and then test the messages among teens

A couple of scene setting points to start:

• the number of students choosing computer science as a major had dropped 70% since 2000 (UCLA, 2007)
• more than 80% of first year university students did not know what a computer science major actually did
• a different survey (Taulbee, 2007) says computer science enrolments had risen 6.2% from 2006 to 2007 – however diversity is still an issue with only 10% of those awarded to women

The report begins with high school student attitudes towards computer science as a career. For the most part they are positive.

• CS ranked third (behind music and business) as ‘a good major to choose’ – however this is split on gender lines. 74% positive for boys vs 38% for girls.
• As a career choice CS ranks fourth (behind musician (?!), doctor and entrepreneur (?!)) – but notably above lawyer, financial analyst and accountant. Once again – split on gender lines leads to 67% positive for boys vs 26% positive for girls.

The report is most useful when it moves to messaging. When choosing careers high school students focused on:

• Doing work that they find interesting (78%)
• Being passionate about their jobs (71%)
• Being able to spend time with their families (54%)
• Having the power to do good and doing work that makes a difference (52%)

The research provides a gender split for the above responses – it finds that girls are more responsive when it comes to ‘being more passionate about your work’ and ‘having the power to do good and doing work that makes a difference‘. These gender gaps were quite wide (14% and 9% respectively) suggesting that people speaking with young girls about career choices should focus on these elements in their primary messaging.

The next section of the report I found interesting was when they looked at university and career choices based on familiarity with technology. The report creates three segments i) communicators (think teenagers with mobiles/social media), ii) techies (kids fixing modems and assembling computers), and iii) creators (digital media content). Not surprisingly, all teens ranked high on the first, boys on the second and girls on the third.

From here the report identified that a reasonably high number of students in the creators space (which is 44% female) were thinking of taking up computer science majors (74%) and careers (68%). This insight suggests that it is possible to translate a young girl’s enthusiasm for digital media (photography mainly) – into future digital careers. [nb a point of note – while about 70-80% of students thought computer science was a good idea – only 6%-14% considered it as a future career path. The review team proposed a separate report to address this issue]

My take away:

When talking to girls about tech careers I suggest focusing on the outcome/result of the technology. They know that apps, websites and systems are built with ‘code’ but it helps to explain that they are built by people that work with humans, that understand design, that have the ability to make things beautiful and work seamlessly. User experience, app development, business analyst roles are strong points for discussions on careers. Talking through how different organisations use technology to improve lives (ie local councils using apps to fix infrastructure or banks helping retailers conduct transactions quickly) is a good approach. Another point of conversation is that having the skills to design software (or work in tech) empowers the girls to effect this change – to ‘be in the drivers seat’.

Conclusion:

The strongest positive driver towards computer science or an openness to a career in computing, regardless of gender, is “having the power to create and discover new things”.