This house believes that Academic Education will never meet the skills needs of the IT Profession

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April 2, 2013

This house believes that Academic Education will never meet the skills needs of the IT Profession

An Oxford Union style Debate

"This house believes that Academic Education will never meet the skills needs of the IT Profession"

BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists are jointly hosting an Oxford Union style debate on Wednesday 12 June 2013, 6.30pm - 9.00pm at Armourers' Hall in the City of London.

Our guests of honour for the evening are BCS President, Roger Marshall and WCIT Master, Michael KS Grant

The debaters for this event are

Dr Bill Mitchell, Director of the BCS Academy of Computing

Professor Kevin Jones, Head of Computing at City University

David Evans, Membership Director for BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT

Deborah Trayhurn, Director Higher Education Skills Work

About the debate motion

'Universities are failing to educate graduates with the skills we need' - this is the oft heard complaint by employers of IT graduates. Does the problem start in school with the dire state of ICT teaching and assessment at GCSE and A Level? Should academia be trying to produce graduates with only 'employable skills' that have a shelf life of at best a couple of years? Are employers really expecting universities to produce a mature, rounded professional with 20 years experience straight out of university? Is it reasonable to expect Academia to bridge the skills gap when employers are not prepared to provide a robust career path for IT professionals?

Academia and the IT Profession seem to be out of alignment in a way that other more mature professional career paths are not. Medicine, law, accountancy and the teaching profession provide a clear path from university to the highest levels of those careers - not so in IT. The IT Profession's skills framework (SFIA) is only a decade old, and IT is neither a regulated or statutory profession - perhaps employers ask and expect too much of Academia, when the IT Profession is still in its infancy.

Only the audience will decide whether the motion is carried or defeated, so join us for what promises to be a lively and entertaining evening in sumptuous surroundings!

Further details and link to enrolment

2 Responses

User deleted says:

April 16, 2013 at 2:35 pm

Seats selling out quickly for the Oxford Union style debate

40% of the seats are already sold out for the joint BCS/WCIT Oxford Union style debate and we have just under 2 months to go! Early bird tickets are available until 10th May, thereafter the ticket price jumps up – so if you would like to join us, I recommend booking your ticket(s) now to avoid disappointment. There is a 10% discount for BCS members.

http://www.bcs.org/content/ConWebDoc/50013

All enrolments are via the BCS events website, credit card payment welcome!
User deleted says:

May 2, 2013 at 7:54 am

Still time to grab an early bird seat!

The joint BCS/WCIT Oxford Union style debate on the evening of 12th June at Armourers’ Hall in the City of London has now passed the 50% enrolment mark. Early bird discounted tickets are available until midnight on 10th May, thereafter the tickets jump up in price and will be available until midnight on 5th June.

http://www.bcs.org/content/ConWebDoc/50013

We already have an impressive range of employers, industry bodies, universities and associated organisations attending, including but not limited to; Cambridge University, IBM, Accenture, Department of BIS, City and Guilds, BCS, Greenwich University, Symantec, UBS, University of Manchester, City University London, Juniper Networks, WCIT, Computing, University of Durham, University of Northampton, The Register, Cap Gemini, The Open University and the University of London to name but a few of the more notable organisations.