Aardvark Daily

Please visit the sponsor!

Getting kids into tech

I see a lot of kids who have no idea what they want to be when they leave school.

Many of them have no career path mapped out, no passions, no burning desire to take on some specific job when they enter the workforce.

Personally, I find this very sad.

Ever since I can remember, I've always known what I wanted to do and what job I aspired to.

Initially I wanted to be a scientist but, after discovering just how much work was involved in getting that PhD I decided that maybe I'd set my sights a little lower and got into electronics as a "tech". Pretty soon I found that just "fixing stuff" wasn't enough of a challenge so I got into the design side and found that my work was fun, interesting and exciting.

I pitied those who dreaded their boring jobs and who watched the clock from 8am through 5pm while performing some dull, uninspiring task in order to earn their pay-packet.

In a way, I think it's fair to say that I've never done a day's work in my life -- because every day I was simply doing what I'd probably have been doing anyway but thankfully, I also got a useful wad of cash at the end of the month.

That's the way I wish everyone could be.

Instead of enduring 40 hours of tedium every week just so they can pay the bills and buy a few bottles of beer for a Saturday night, everyone should be able to have a job that makes those 40 hours fun and enjoyable as well as paying well.

Now some might say that I was lucky because my chosen career paths have coincided with strong demand in the job market and I've been smart enough to teach myself most of the skills I've required to be good at what I do -- however, I believe everyone has the potential to choose a path that will deliver the same benefits to them and their families.

What's needed however, is the installation of passion in kids long before they leave school.

I've seen it happen when I demonstrate my jet engines to groups of secondary-school pupils. Their eyes open and their lips mouth the 'f' word when the awesomeness of what a bit of pipe and propane can do. If we want NZ to prosper then perhaps we need to bring this shock and awe to all our schools and inspire kids to do aim for a job that is fun, exciting and interesting.

How do we do this?

Well I'm thinking that most geeks will already have their career paths mapped out. If you're a young computer nerd (do they still exist) you'll likely already be planning to get a BSc in compsci then enter the workforce as a programmer -- no problem.

But what about those kids who prefer to just top up their PlayStation tan each evening without any desire to learn more about the internals or software? These are the kids that, without any intervention, will likely end up stacking supermarket shelves or inviting you to "have a nice day" as you walk away from their counter with your Big Mac and fries.

Well maybe we should be focusing on ways to get these kids interested in tech and one possibility that springs to mind is the old "Robot Wars" series that used to screen (maybe still does) on TV.

I'm pretty sure that if you organised a national inter-school robot wars competition then many of those gamers would jump at the chance to become part of a team that had to design, build, train and pit their robot against hundreds of others in such a tournament.

Kids would have to learn about electronics, electro-mechanics, engineering, software, strategy, teamwork, project management and be exposed to a whole raft of other tech-related skills. Just as important, most of them would have to learn about failure and how to cope with it, an essential life-skill that's totally missing from our education system at present.

When you stop and think about it -- by focusing on a team-based project like this, just about all the aspects of secondary education could be brought to bear on the goal. Math, science, "technology" and even a little history (battle strategies) are parts of the syllabus that would be applicable.

Surely this would be a great way to instill a little passion into the minds of kids that otherwise would just end up in low-wage employment solely because they never really found anything that excited them in the job market.

Of course what's needed is someone with money and a willingness to invest in a new generation of Kiwis on which *we* will become reliant for our care and support when we reach the twilight of our years.

Sadly, I suspect the only way this would work is if some savvy TV producer could turn it into a reality TV series with which to fill our screens of a weekday evening. Still, even that would be better than nothing.

And now... the Arduino Apophis versus the Intel disIntegrator (crowd roars).

Please visit the sponsor!

Have your say on this...

PERMALINK to this column

Oh, and don't forget today's sci/tech news headlines

Rank This Aardvark Page

Change Font