The world is currently dealing with a series of crises, including climate change, supply chain instability, and soaring energy prices.

However, an underlying problem is a growing digital skills gap in tech, despite a marked increase in the amount of technology being adopted around the world.

There is also a severe gender gap across digital skills, with school-age girls much less likely to focus on computing science than boys – exacerbating the issue for generations to come.

Some progress is being made. According to research from Deloitte Global, large global tech firms, on average, will reach nearly 33% overall female representation in their workforces in 2022.

However, the teaching sector struggles with a severe lack of computer science teachers. In 2008, the number in Scotland was 766. In 2021, it dropped to 595.

As well as this, new research by Tes Scotland has found that nearly 40% of places on secondary teaching courses are currently unfilled, with Scottish universities finding it hard to fill even half of places for subjects including science and maths.

To combat this growing issue, STACS has been formed by teachers Brendan McCart and Toni Scullion, founder of the award winning non profit charity dressCode, with one of the aims being to get more computing science teaching into schools.

DIGIT sat down with them to discuss the STACS project, the current state of digital skills in Scotland, and the price of not closing the gap.

Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science (STACS)

Scullion and McCart are both passionate about the plight of computing science teaching, having been in the job themselves for many years.

Their STACS project is a teacher-led organisation, funded by the Scottish Government, that was started after the release of Mark Logan’s Scottish Tech Ecosystem review.

Scullion says that, off the back of the review, STACS puts a focus specifically on supporting and working alongside the computing science teachers’ community.

“It’s an amazing opportunity and something that’s never really been done before. It’s good to have that backing and trust from government and see something from the report that is vital for the pipeline,” Scullion adds.

The Logan report put a real focus on the talent ‘pipeline’ and the areas at school level where Scotland it not doing as well as it could – STACS is hoping to address this.

She comments: “What’s amazing about it is that it’s led by teachers. Brendan [McCart] and I are both computer science teachers, but we’re also working with a team of 13 other teachers across [Scotland’s] councils so we’ve got people across the country, leaders in their fields who are doing amazing stuff.

“We’re also aware, being teachers, that education is obviously really challenging, but what we found is that it varies from council to council, so that’s why for STACS it was very important to have a reference team of teachers across the country to find out what’s happening so we can try and support them.”

The STACS website is a ‘central hub’ of materials for computing science teachers, providing high-quality, bespoke resources for the Scottish Computing Science curriculum with lesson plans, activities and fully worked solutions, as well as a curated and growing list of classroom tools, around 150 videos and more.

Scullion notes that being a teacher “she struggled to find the time to find good quality videos to put in her lessons” showing the value of a service like this to get kids learning.

Knowing there is one place teachers delivering Computing Science can go, and know there is a selection of resources that are quality assured, tagged, and organised by a Computing Science teacher is valuable.

Closing the tech gender divide 

It is no secret that the gender divide in the Scottish tech sector is vast. Despite some positive signs – as more women are now seen in tech leadership roles – more still needs to be done.

McCart notes that there are many reasons why the divide is so wide. It is a major area of contention, he adds, not just in computing, but for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in general.

“People have got data on this. There are studies which show that behaviours between the way boys and girls approach subjects they like, and that they feel confident, start early on.”

He adds: “It would fall into the more general way of how young people begin to identify with and feel that they belong to one set of aspirations. Role models are obviously quite important.”

So far, McCart suggests, general access to computing as a subject in primary schools hasn’t been available as much as it could have been, so there’s likely not an avenue for girls to find an interest.

“Hypothetically, say that girls don’t have a cue, there was no opportunity for them, and I guess boys pick it [computer science] up more easily by themselves, they find their own way into it.

“However, girls, maybe from a social point of view, would respond more when it’s embodied and relational.”

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He adds that there are activities ongoing, including in Glasgow, making that case for getting more girls into the sector as a fundamental game changer.

There could also be more of an attempt from employers to do more to help to close the gender gap in the tech sector. The Logan report has suggested that it is important to look at the root causes and fix them from the ground up, not just at school level, but in the workplace as well.

“This goes back to this idea of pipeline, I mean, that’s what the report’s message is – that you need to look at root causes, and if you can fix them, the solution will flow through the pipeline,” McCart says.

He goes on to make a salient point – that if an employer agrees that their businesses should hire more female employees, you need to have people that are motivated enough to move into the sector to take the jobs.

This requires leaders and role models to be present and visible on their journey while they are still at college or University, or even when they are still at school, McCart adds.

“Although you are not directly addressing your workforce as it stands right now, you are investing for the future, and that is the idea of the pipeline. It’s about investment and getting a return,” he says.

Averting a future crisis

Getting more computing science teachers into schools is also no longer about simply teaching the next generation – it is now becoming a matter of urgency.

Scullion suggests that there are many reasons for a decline in computing science teachers. She notes that, over the last few years, every time there is a change in the curriculum, there is a drop in teacher numbers. However, she believes that this is due to a lack of a computing science specific strategy in support of teachers.

“The majority of Computing Science departments are made of one or two people. We were very fortunate, but we were a department of four, so we could all lean on each other, and if you don’t have that support, well, no wonder people are leaving the profession. We have never really recovered from that.”

But what would the impact of a lack of digital skills training be for Scotland? McCart says he sees signs reminiscent of heavy industry leaving central Scotland.

He comments: “Central Scotland used to have steel mills, ship building, and mining. It went, and then look at the bleak years that proceeded it. That is what it would be like. Real economic problems.”

Scullion adds that computing science is a very important subject, and a drop in computing science teachers at school level must be taken seriously: “Would you allow that to happen with any other subject? Absolutely not,” she says.

“If we are not careful, we won’t have the Scottish talent, and I think that is just awful. It is a scary thought, and a lot of people think that this is a future problem, but it really isn’t. It is a problem that has been here for a long time, and we really need to address it.”

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