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CODER SUPPLY & DEMAND

IMPROVING BIRMINGHAM THROUGH

TECHNOLOGY

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CODER SUPPLY & DEMAND: IMPROVING BIRMINGHAM THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

Birmingham

Birmingham is one of the youngest cities in Europe, with around 40% of its population under

the age of 30. Of the million people who live in the city, 42% are from non-white ethnic

groups (1). This youthful and diverse population is one of Birmingham’s greatest assets.

The UK’s second city, Birmingham is situated in the heart of the country. It has great existing

transport links, and improvements such as the proposed HS2 high speed rail will make the

region even more accessible, with travel to London taking less than 50 minutes. Birmingham is

also supporting economic growth through rejuvenating the city with the Big City Plan (2), and

the region’s financial sector has been boosted with news such as HSBC relocating its head

office to Birmingham (3) and a “Canary Wharf” like plan for the city centre (4).

One area that Birmingham is struggling with is employment. Unemployment is significantly

higher than the UK average, and the proportion of young people not in education,

employment, or training (NEET) is 19.1%; the highest proportion of NEETs in the country (5).

The technology sector in the UK is expected to grow nearly 5 times faster than the UK

average, and it is estimated that it will need over 500,000 new IT professionals over the next

5 years (6). The West Midlands already has 4,000 employers in the IT industry, and around

17,875 developers (7). Could growing a technology cluster in Birmingham help solve the

unemployment problem?

Technology Clusters

If you ask people to name a technology (or tech) cluster, “Silicon Valley” will no doubt

dominate the responses. The name is now a powerful brand, representing a cluster of

technology companies in San Francisco which includes tech giants like Adobe, Apple,

Facebook, Google, and Yahoo!

Many cities have tried to emulate the success of Silicon Valley, and not many more

successfully than London with its tech cluster known as “Silicon Roundabout”. London tech

firms have already exceeded $1 billion of investment in 2014 (8), and the success of the tech

industry could be a big contributor to London’s bounce-back from the economic downturn.

Between 2009 and 2012 the number of digital companies in London increased by 76%. The

digital sector is responsible for 27% of all job growth in London and there are now around

582,000 people employed by the sector (6).

The rise of London as a tech hub is due to many factors. The government supporting the

growth of tech companies with policies and investment (9), good connections being built with

the strong local university community, strong local financial industry links leading to a

Financial Technology (FinTech) explosion, and the 32 accelerators for start-ups in the capital

(10) have all surely encouraged the growth of the digital sector.

Is the economic success of technology the same in the rest of the country?

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Employee growth for the IT industry was 11.6% for London in 2013 and only 2.6% for the rest

of the UK (11). London also currently accounts for 35% of the UK’s tech turnover, with the

South East in second place with 22% (12); this means more than half of the UK’s technology

turnover comes from the capital or the South East. In fact London has over 30% of UK ICT

businesses, which is its largest share in any sector.

If we look at the West Midlands in comparison, it holds less than 3% of the UK tech turnover.

This contrast is even more noticeable if we take into account the populations of the regions;

London has almost 1.5 times the population of the West Midlands, but has more than 11 times

the amount of technology turnover.

The need for the rest of the UK to benefit from technology growth has been recognised by the

government, with Tech City (the body set up to aid the digital sector in the capital) changing

to Tech City UK (13). Local organisations like Marketing Birmingham and Silicon Canal are

attempting to help grow a technology cluster in Birmingham, spearheading efforts to develop

the local tech community, and attempting to encourage investment away from the capital

(14). In order to succeed, Birmingham must have a strong, local, sustainable and available to

hire talent pool to fuel the growth of businesses and the tech economy.

Digital Careers

Within the technology industry there are a multitude of job roles which require skilled

personnel. Roles in the sector include marketing, design, product management, project

management, data analysis, testing, and programming. There would be increased demand for

all of these roles as the technology sector grows, but programming is at the core of driving

the technological innovation needed in a growing cluster.

Programmers

Programmers, or developers, are responsible for writing computer software and are probably

the most important part of any software company. There are 344,000 developers in the UK

(15), and software is used in almost every facet of modern life – for example, a typical new

car comes with around 100,000,000 lines of code! (16)

Spotlight: Games Industry

The games industry is a sector heavily reliant on programming talent. A recent report (17) has

shown there to be 1,902 video games companies in the UK, with an annual growth in the

number of companies of 22% since 2011. Around half of this industry is based in London and

the South East.

Birmingham was noted to be 1 of 6 areas of potential for the games industry, but is not

considered to be a games hub… yet.

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Birmingham Cluster

There is already existing local need for technology skills in Birmingham. An analysis of the top

job vacancies by skills required (see Graph 1) showed that computer programming skills are in

high demand, in particular JavaScript which was top (18).

The West Midlands already has around 5% of the UK’s developers (7), and with 10 nearby

universities and 6,690 students on computer science courses (19) it has a very strong

academic base on which to build a tech cluster. This means that there is the potential for a

strong and sustainable pool of talented programmers in Birmingham. But how does industry

rate the current talent pool?

We have conducted a survey of local employers to gain insight into their perspectives on

hiring programming talent.

Graph 1: Vacancies by skill requirement for the Birmingham travel to work area, taken from Birmingham City Council Unemployment Briefing (18)

JavaScript Sales

Repair Contract Management Business Development

Mathematics Administrative Support

SQL Accounting

Product Sale and Delivery Procurement

Rehabilitation Mentoring Inspection

Sales Management Appointment Setting

Computer Aided Design (CAD) Microsoft C#

Structured Methods Business Administration

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700

Graph 2: Breakdown of technology employers in Birmingham by number of employees

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University

A university Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Computer Science usually lasts 3 years and

now costs £9,000 a year in tuition fees. There are almost 90,000 students on computer

science courses nationally. The University of Birmingham computer science department is one

of the top performing departments in the country, and was named the number one computer

science department in The Guardian University guide 2014 (20). 91% of the department

graduates were in a graduate-level job or studying further within six months of graduation.

The total unemployment figure for computer science degrees in 2013 was 13%, which is the

highest of any subject area (21). In fact, taking The Guardian University guide figures, we see

the average employment statistic for the top 101 departments is 67.5%. There is a strong

preference from industry to hire graduates from “top-tier” universities, such as Russell Group

institutions which have an unemployment rate of 8.6% (22).This also affects earnings, with

Oxford computer science graduates the highest earners of any graduate with on average

£43,895 within six months of graduation (23). Less established universities, such as post-92

institutions, have a higher than average unemployment rate of 16.6%. However post-92

universities have 64% of the computer science cohort, whereas Russell Group members only

account for 13%. This means that 71.6% of unemployed graduates are from post-92 institutions.

How is there this level of unemployment when demand for skills is high? Many blame the

disconnect between academia and industry.

A recent McKinsey survey (24) showed that 74% of education providers rated graduates from

their institution as adequately prepared for work. Only 35% of employers and 38% of youth

agreed, which indicates that education is overall not meeting the needs of industry. Although

this survey shows a more general point of view, the message seems emphasised within the

technology industry.

Employers often feel that what university graduates learn on courses has little or no practical

relevance for commercial activities. They would probably be right. Universities are under

different pressures to industry.

Firstly, they aim to produce computer scientists capable of becoming good lecturers,

professors, researchers, thinkers, and coders. The academic portion of skills are different to

those that industry desire. Software engineering is arguably a small part of what being a

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computer scientist entails, and practical projects are secondary to lectures on the underlying

theory.

Secondly, universities need to cater for a wide variety of graduate destinations; producing

programmers for everything from web development to quantitative analytics. Companies

often have specific interests which universities simply cannot concentrate on. The argument

is a well-rounded high-level thinker is a better product for the broad world that is graduate

opportunities.

“Finding candidates who have experience of building something themselves

is a problem. Most people have only ever done university projects. No real

world experience means they miss out on standard tools like version control,

development planning, etc.”

— Local Web Development Company

“When interviewing, I tend to ignore completely what people have done at

university. I much prefer to see what people have done in their spare time,

off their own motivation. You actually don’t need a degree for that”

— Local Tech Consultancy

“Computer Science degrees should be more industry driven, commercial

awareness is essential”

— Local start-up

Many companies appreciate that a graduate is far from the finished article, and often larger

businesses have graduate schemes. These are essentially training periods, which can last up

to 3 years, where recruits will be immersed in business process and learn their roles. This

type of scheme is effective, but is not often found in small and medium-sized enterprises

(SME’s) because the burden of training is often too heavy for smaller companies to bear,

especially start-ups.

“We would love to take people on and train them, but often it would take 4-

6 months just to get them up to speed. We simply cannot dedicate the time

or resources to training”

— Local Tech Company

These graduate schemes are also dwindling in numbers, with most employers requiring work

experience citing the fact that graduates with no work experience waste the company’s

investment in them since they can swiftly move on once trained up (25). The alternative is for

large corporations to bring in workers on intra-company transfers, which affects the number

of entry-level jobs available since talent is recruited, or redistributed, internally (26).

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Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships are another popular route into programming which attempts to both

stimulate employment and provide a vocational training through learning on-the-job.

Apprentices can earn at least a minimum wage of £2.68 an hour whilst splitting time between

gaining job-specific skills through work (usually 4 days a week) and also theoretical knowledge

through study at an educational centre (usually 1 day a week) (27). Anyone over 16 can apply

for an apprenticeship, with different levels of study available. Software and Web

Development is an advanced level apprenticeship, equivalent to 2 A levels. A search on the

apprenticeship match service showed there to be 71 vacancies for IT apprenticeships in the

West Midlands, with 921 nationally (28), and there were over 14,000 ICT apprenticeships in

2013 (29).

A benefit of apprenticeships is that they bridge the apparent disconnect between education

and industry. The industry employer is directly involved in the majority of the training an

apprentice receives, and the apprentice is doing real work – a major criticism of academia

from industry. The scheme also encourages a relationship between employer and apprentice

which hopefully culminates in a permanent job at the end.

Apprenticeships may come under criticism for a number of reasons. The model is often said to

be open to abuse from some employers, who may see apprentices as cheap labour – 19% of

apprentices in England said they didn’t receive any form of on-the-job or off-the-job training

(30).

The apprenticeship also places a burden on the employer, which can be harder for smaller

businesses or start-ups since they may not have the time, resources, or personnel to

effectively aid in apprentice training. There is also a more inconsistent experience with

apprenticeships since it depends primarily on the employer – an employer-apprentice culture

mismatch may lead to the apprentice feeling IT was “not for them”. This also represents the

fact that there is no buffer between the learning environment and industry, which in the

long-term may not be optimal. An apprentice will learn skills for a role within one company,

but the set of skills may be so specific that they cannot easily be translated directly into

another role in another company.

Social perception of apprenticeships has also been a problem according to a recent study.

“Not enough value seen in technical and vocational qualifications by young

people. 2/3 of young people think society values academic over vocational.

Most young people graduate without completing a work placement. Then,

there seems to be mass disenchantment of young people after each iteration

of education”

— McKinsey Youth Employment Survey (24)

In terms of entry requirements, a person would need to be at a certain level of employability

already to be able to undertake an apprenticeship with an employer. This may not be the

case with a large proportion of unemployed people or NEET’s.

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Short Courses

There is a growing sector of education for the technology industry known as the boot camp -

short, intense courses designed to immerse students in how to be a programmer. They are

especially popular with people looking to change careers, since they are less likely to want to

invest years in a degree before getting a job.

Spotlight: Dev Bootcamp

Dev Bootcamp is a course based in the US that takes around 19 weeks in total, and students

are exposed to everything from front-end web development to creating an app. The course

centres around the Ruby on Rails programming environment, which is unlikely to be seen in

any university curriculum. Each week is estimated to be 70-90 hours of project-based learning,

and the key is learning through doing with only 1 or 2 hours of lectures a week.

“We take people from all types of backgrounds; some have computer

science degrees, and some have never even seen code before”

— Dev Bootcamp

The course is shown to be successful, with graduates having an 85% employment rate within 4

months of the course end. Crucial to this success is the learning model. Experienced

practitioners give very few lectures, and act more as mentors. Students work in pairs, which

encourages simultaneous teaching and learning. The curriculum is project-based, and the

“learn through doing” philosophy is at the heart of the course.

These short courses are shorter, quicker, cheaper, and more intense than the university

experience. They provide real projects to learn “on-the-job”, team work is essential, and

technologies relevant to industry are used.

However, the courses are self-funded; the cost of the Dev Bootcamp course is $12,200 ($500

discounts are available for military veterans and minorities underrepresented in software

engineering). The first 9 weeks are also a “Phase 0”, which is independent, remote learning

before coming to a centre. These factors contribute to self-selecting already motivated

learners, with anybody not self-motivated most likely being deterred by the fee or the 9

weeks of independent study.

A criticism of short courses is that there is not sufficient time to learn the higher level

thinking that universities pride themselves on. There is an argument to the depth and quality

of learning that is achieved on short courses, but with Dev Bootcamp’s employability rate not

dissimilar to university statistics, there is obviously some benefit industry see in hiring a short

course graduate. Lack of accreditation may also prove an issue for some prospective students

and employers.

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What Does Industry Want?

Motivation

From our research we can conclude that learning to write code seems to primarily be about

one thing – motivation. Universities have a huge applicant base each year, and so they can

often afford to be elitist in their acceptances. The students top universities take on are

normally self-motivated with a proven ability to learn and pass exams well. They also tend to

have a “failure is not an option” view of education. Apprenticeships are usually taken up by

those who are already motivated to get a job and learn while working. Boot camps are

intense and require self-funding and self-teaching. The theme of motivation is ever present,

and industry employers also value this highly when choosing programmers.

“We look for a person’s motivation. If they have coded anything in their

spare time, setting aside the quality, it shows us that they are motivated

enough to learn”


There is also a consensus that practical work and real projects may be the best way to learn

when the end goal is to be an employee who can immediately contribute to a company.

“People should get into programming by building applications they would

find useful. Build something that someone somewhere would use”


However, “programming aptitude” is a phrase many technology recruiters and educators use

to describe one of their chief attributes when looking for suitable candidates.

Programming Aptitude

“The thing we need is aptitude. Languages change. What we do changes. We

need someone with the raw aptitude for programming so that they can

adapt with our company’s direction”

— Local Tech Employer

Programming aptitude is the latent ability of a person to learn programming. It is often

formalised as the ability to break down a problem, think logically, and use abstract models to

approach a problem. These are traits that are often found in the mathematics and physics

communities, which may explain why there is historic crossover between these subject areas

and programming.

There has been research on programming aptitude which would indicate that some people are

predisposed to do better at programming related learning (31). Many in the industry agree

that programming aptitude is a key ingredient in a successful programmer. 63% of employers

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we surveyed rated programming aptitude as the most important aspect of a programmer, and

all respondents chose aptitude as one of their top 3 most important traits.

But do we know what aptitude actually is? One argument is that programming aptitude as we

know it is actually an expression of the suitability of a person to a learning model. The classic

academic learning model is inherently designed for the historic mass user of education; the

middle-class white male. The system caters for their motivation, and students from more

affluent backgrounds with more educated parents often have a more inherent motivation to

succeed academically, and have the means to do so. In fact there is conjecture that

universities that are strict in their admissions have whittled it down to these self-motivated

individuals, and so curriculum becomes somewhat irrelevant (32). There are two problems

here. Academic success is measured by exams, which are effectively a tool for measuring

memory and understanding. Lectures will aim to help students pass these exams. Students

will learn and revise the lecture material. Throughout this process, the practical element of

programming is ignored. This leads to the second problem; this focus on exam-driven study

alienates people who learn in different ways, and this could help to explain the diversity

problem in computer science. For example, the UK programming industry is around 85% male,

and studies have hinted males and females may learn differently (33). Appealing only to the

pre-motivated also does nothing to advance the social mobility of those left behind by

education.

Also, in reality, exam-based learning model encourages ego. “I don’t know” is often met by

big red crosses in schools, and so we are often reluctant to say that phrase. But in

programming it is very important to be able to say those three little words.

“When interviewing candidates for programming positions, I always look for

someone who is brave enough to say "I don't know" when they need to.

Candidates who can't or won't do this get red flagged; those types of

programmers are dangerous. "Can-do" attitudes have a superficial allure, but

they're actually poison in our field”

— Jeff Atwood, Coding Horror Blog (34)

Seeking help instead of struggling on with a problem individually is key to being a successful

and efficient programmer, and the biggest realisation should be that, with the ever-changing

face of technologies, there is always more for someone to learn!

So, changing the approach to teaching could help encourage a more work-ready, diverse, and

humble generation of skilled technology workers.

Real Work

Companies repeated “real work” as a key factor in training an effective workforce. Academic

studies are classically designed for imparting theoretical knowledge and high level concepts

to students. In programming, these are important. But many people believe the best way to

learn programming is through doing. This means project-based learning rather than lectures.

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However, the practical implementations in industry are often very different to those which

are experienced in academic projects.

“Although I had written a lot of code at university and was confident in my

abilities, I had no idea how many factors had been ignored that are

important in real-world applications. Being safety critical and version

controlled is often overlooked in a university project, but the pure scale of

the projects and working properly in a team were probably the biggest

changes.”

— Computer Science Graduate

Industry wants programmers who have experience not just with theoretical concepts, but

implementing them. This is often a big jump.

Team Based Learning

Respondents also stated that there is generally a lack of

soft skills in the candidates they interview. In an academic

environment, learning and studying are essentially

individual tasks. In industry, programming is very rarely

done solo, and so knowledge of how to work effectively in

a team on a software project is a core concept in industry

programming.

Although in Computer Science courses there are usually

team based projects, there are some key differences from

working in a programming team in industry. The size and

scope of the project is often very different in an academic

setting. Methodologies like agile or scrum software

developments are often missed. Furthermore, sometimes

the competitive nature of academic success can

overshadow the team-work aspect. Often members are

marked on how much they have contributed. This means

that goals of the team completing a project and

completing work yourself are often conflicted, as doing

more work than others can yield a better grade.

Working with others can be incorporated through group learning. This has been suggested to

be much more effective than traditional individual study, especially in the case of computing.

Pair-learning is particularly popular in programming courses, and evidence suggests it is a

better method of learning (35).

Team based learning helps propagate important concepts in programming that are not always

obvious. The first is the ability to embrace ignorance – in a team, asking for help is much

more productive than struggling to achieve a target on your own. The second is accountability

– accepting responsibility and openly presenting mistakes is vital in moving a team forwards

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quickly, with the alternative often being arguing that it is not your fault instead of finding

and fixing the problems.

Labour Market

There is already demand for workers with technology skills.

38% of tech firms expect a growth in staff numbers over the next 12 months, which when

combined with those which are expecting a reduction in size gives a net balance of 31% of

tech firms. Larger companies report steeper growth in actual job hiring than smaller tech

firms (36). In our survey, respondents expected a 5-year growth of programming hire that

indicates a 27.5% annual growth over the period.

If we assume these statistics and project this model forwards, this would mean that within

the next 12 months around 5,330 more entrants would be needed into the technology job

market. There are currently almost 6,690 computer science students in the West Midlands,

more than 80% of which are undergraduates. Assuming an even split along years of study, an

estimated 2,230 students will graduate into the marketplace. So ignoring the “brain drain”

effect of London, the migration effects of graduating students, and concentrating on

computer science graduates as the main pool for recruitment, there will be 3,100 vacant new

positions. Even without the disconnect between academia and industry, many more new

entrants into technology will be needed. There were 1,750 ICT apprenticeship starts in the

West Midlands in 2012/13 (37); updating the estimates with apprentice starter numbers then

leaves 1,350 vacancies to be filled.

Taking into account the brain drain effect across Higher Education Institutions would put the

estimate of unfilled vacancies at around 3100 (assuming 55% graduate retention (38)).

Local Talent Benefits

There are a number of key ingredients to a successful cluster, but one of the most important

is a strong local talent pool. Skills gaps have been highlighted in London’s cluster as a cause

for concern, with many blaming ill-designed academic syllabuses (39). Despite London

attracting talent from all around the UK, with a “brain drain” which converges in London (40),

companies still acknowledge a skills gap in technology that many look to plug with staff from

abroad. So having a skilled and ready to work talent force locally is important, but current

methods of training a workforce are not satisfying this need. So the benefit of addressing this

problem in Birmingham is that start-ups and emerging businesses will have the available

talent to grow their companies and the economy.

However, this sustainable local talent source will not only promote growth in this manner, but

also attract larger corporations. We have seen how London’s pledge to grow a technology

cluster has attracted the likes of Google to set-up in the city (41) (42). Skilled technology

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workers who are ready to work will bring these larger companies who in turn will bring jobs,

investment, and also gain the attention of the industry. In this way, increasing the supply of

skilled entrants into the market can also attract and increase demand.

Options: University Placements

One aspect which industry has shown to appreciate is the university work placement. Many

universities advertise summer projects from industry so that students can increase their

practical and industrial knowledge in their holidays. This shows motivation to give up free

time and learn on-the-job, gaining valuable work experience.

“It gave me an insight into what a programmer actually does, and I was

surprised how different it was to what I was learning in university”

— Summer placement graduate,

University of Birmingham

A more formal approach within the university curriculum is known as the sandwich year. This

is a year in industry that is required by the course, where a student is effectively hired on an

internship (usually between their 2nd and 3rd years of an undergraduate course). This extends

the university degree to 4 years, but the experience gained is invaluable.

“My placement was with a large bank in London. It was so different to

coding in university, mainly due to the larger team-based projects and the

scale of the projects we did. I feel that I gained invaluable skills and work

experience that I wouldn’t have got just from university”

— Sandwich year graduate,

University of Birmingham

Students who undertake a sandwich year placement earn a salary 8% higher on average than

students who don’t (43). This shows that industry values this work experience, and so

encouraging more students to take this route and combining academic studies with real work

experience will enhance the employability and usefulness of graduates.

Options: Group Apprenticeships

Some of the criticisms of apprenticeships include the burden on the employer, which is

heavier for smaller companies to bear, and that the scheme is too dependent on a single

employer. There are schemes available, such as an Apprenticeship Training Agency (ATA),

which could alleviate this burden and possible improve the apprenticeship experience. ATAs

act as a recruiter; the agency acts as the apprentice’s employer and then places them with a

host employer (44). The host employer will pay a fee for the apprentice’s services which

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covers the apprentice wage and the ATA’s fee. Although this total fee is often higher than the

apprentice’s wage alone would be, the host employer has the flexibility of knowing that if

their situation changes and they cannot retain the apprentice then the ATA will find them an

alternative host company.

Within this model, a course can be structured so that an apprentice can have the flexibility of

multiple host companies. This means their work experience is more varied, they develop a

wider range of skills, but still concentrating on real work.

Options: Gamer Camp Model

A new model of course was started in Birmingham City University which focuses on the games

industry, but may be applicable on a wider scale. Set up in 2011, “Gamer Camp is a finishing

school for game developers (coders, artists and producers)”. It combines a real-studio

environment and real work projects within an academic setting, and with industry backing

from games giants such as Codemasters and Sony, Gamer Camp ensures it stays relevant to

industry requirements. For example, the course currently designs games for the latest PS4

console.

The course has a “real-job” feel, with full-time office hours from 9am-5pm, and an interview

for applicants. Since the Masters course is designed for post-graduates, the entry

requirements are high. Experience with an object-oriented programming language is needed,

with graduates from Computer Science, Maths, Physics or related disciplines are preferred.

There is also a request for a real demonstration of an applicant’s work, so each student must

already have a strong grasp of coding.

The course is not just for programmers. To make a modern-day computer game requires not

only coders, but artists, and production managers. Students are split into real production

teams and complete 3 projects on 3 platforms using real game hardware.

This course has had great success in channeling students into the games industry; it was

highlighted in NESTA’s Livingstone-Hope report as a great example which others should follow

(45).

There are several issues with this model for a wider context. It aims solely at the games

industry in its current form – could it be used in a wider context to produce ready to work

developers for other industries? It also has a very high skill level required for starting the

course. This is necessary or the games industry, where in-depth knowledge and more involved

programming languages like C++ are required. The problem being that it may not aid NEETs,

and so an adaptation of the model would be needed to address the core of the unemployment

problem.

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Options: Dev Bootcamp Model

Dev Bootcamp, and similar courses such as General Assembly, has gained a lot of traction and

attention within the industry. They are becoming a viable alternative for those looking for a

route into the programming world. Could these courses work in Birmingham?

The main problem would be that, as commercial entities, the courses usually set-up in cities

with a strong existing tech clusters. London, with its strong tech economy and growing

company base, has already attracted General Assembly setting up there and is more likely to

attract others as the cluster expands.

Attracting an existing course such as Dev Bootcamp would be great for a growing Birmingham

tech community, but since the city is currently ranked 7th by Tech Britain as a tech cluster

there is more work to be done before commercial courses look to set-up here (46). There is

also a possibility that an industry-recognised accreditation may come into play, which may

help to address some of the criticisms for the model (47).

Options: New Institution

One possibility which could tie together the aims of plugging the technology skills gap and

increasing employment of young people in Birmingham is a new type of institution. The aim of

the institution would be to inspire people into a digital career, and teach programming to

students with a wide range of backgrounds, ages, and abilities.

The institution should be directly linked into industry, with an advisory board influencing a

heavily project-based curriculum. The focus should be on “learning-by-doing”, and the

subject matter should increase its relevance to the real world with progression through the

course.

Developing team work and soft skills through the projects is important. The projects

undertaken by students should be directly relatable to real-world programming by

incorporating concepts like version control, communication and project management. The

course should cover the essential theory of programming so that any student entering the

course would have grounding in the fundamental high-level concepts. Placements with

industrial partners should form part of the core curriculum to gain work experience. A student,

upon completion of the course, should have a portfolio of real world team projects and links

to industry to encourage hiring directly from the course. Accreditation would be an issue for

such a course. Either this would be sourced through an external body, or through industry

recognition the course would present its own accreditation. Since the course requires support

and involvement from industry partners, who have the opportunity to have placement

students, they are in a position from which they can de-risk employment and hire talented

individuals that will help to grow their business.

The funding model would be important, since constraints associated with typical academic

funding may stifle the effectiveness of a stand-alone scheme. The other issue would be

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selection; normally selection is based on academic success and employability. In order to help

solve the unemployment problem these factors will need to be ignored, and so there is the

possibility to check for coding aptitude in the sense of a logical mind able to break down

problems, or the course would need to innovate on existing teaching models to cater for an

audience left behind by traditional education routes.

One important feature of this new route into programming would be its sense of community.

Profits and market share drive a lot of businesses, but when these aspects are the most

important goals then the company will have a competitive mind-set, regarding other

companies operating in the space as competitors. If, instead of prioritising profit and market

share, a company aims to benefit as many people as possible through technology, then there

can be a naturally collaborative outlook since these aims can align and overlap nicely with

other companies and institutions. An open, sharing, and collaborative ethos would be key to

driving forward the type of community needed around this institution – it would be a

technology hub.

18


Acknowledgements

Thank you to students and staff at the University of Birmingham for their insights. Thanks to

Bhishma Patel, Neda Khodami and Laurence Meah from Digital Duo, Jane Harris from Skills for

Birmingham, and David Maclean from Packt Publishing.

Also thank you to the following companies for their time and willingness to help:

Bluetel Solutions Gamer Camp BCU

Click Hobzy

Codemasters Packt

Credit Suisse Qube Global Software

Dev Bootcamp Talis

Digital Duo Whisk

Digital Native UK Vanti

dojit

And the following organisations for their insight:

Birmingham City Council Tech City UK

HESA UKIE

Author

This report was written by Chris Meah. It follows on from a consultancy project for the

Postgraduate Enterprise Summer School (PESS) and Talent Pool programmes at the University

of Birmingham.

Chris is a social entrepreneur aiming to improve the world through technology, and make it a

fairer place by giving everyone opportunities to learn skills for the future. The IT skills gap,

the lack of diversity, and the stereotype of a coder lacking communication skills are all

symptoms of the same problem – we haven’t cracked how to teach programming.

He studied Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science at the University of Birmingham,

graduating top of his degree whilst also having a full time job giving him experience in sales

and management. He went on to complete a Masters in Biomedical Imaging, and is currently

completing his PhD.

Contact: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

19


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