New school curriculum has technological focus
Michael Gove's new framework for the National Curriculum in England will provide pupils all over the country with improved technological skills.
The document from the education secretary - which was officially published at the start of the week (July 8th) - details plans to refresh the school system and give it a stronger focus on digital and computer skills.
Under the new proposals, pupils aged five to seven will be taught basic computing and learn to create and debug simple programs, while before turning 11 they will understand how to design, use and evaluate computational abstractions.
According to Mr Gove, it is vital that children have the knowledge to create their own computer systems and these changes will reinforce the nation's drive to raise standards in schools.
He said the new curriculum "provides a rigorous basis for teaching, provides a benchmark for all schools to improve their performance and gives children and parents a better guarantee that every student will acquire the knowledge to succeed in the modern world".
It also means that companies will need to prepare themselves to take on young people with advanced digital skills and in order to attract talented new starters, they may have to invest in new equipment and online educational systems.
Not only would this benefit the next generation of recruits, it would also help the companies themselves to manage their employees with more efficiency and flexibility. Digital platforms can have a number of advantages for a business, including decreased administrative costs and more time to concentrate on other operations.
Meanwhile, minor changes have been made to the GCSE Computing framework, which still hopes to educate students to a level that is "suitable for the future workplace".
The publication arrived at the same time the Department for Education revealed the government is planning to introduce Tech-Levels alongside A-Levels, which will be backed by trade associations and employers across the nation.
