How many of the new 24.9k CS undergraduates will teach future A-level students?

Following the release of A-level results on Thursday, it was revealed that Computer Science is now the fastest growing degree subject with almost 25 thousand (24,900) students due to start undergraduate courses. This is good news not only for the subject but for society in general in terms of addressing the skills gap in the UK. But for how long can this trend continue? 

Importance of qualified computing teachers

The reason this year's students have achieved their A-levels in Computer Science is down to their hard work and also the efforts of their teachers. Unless there's enough teachers qualified to teach the subject at A-level the growth in the numbers taking the subject at undergraduate level is less likely to continue. Of course not all students that start an undergraduate course will have completed an A-level in the subject but there's certainly a strong positive correlation. 

There's a positive trend in the number of computing teachers with a relevant post A-level qualification. Since 2017/18 it's risen from less than half (45.6%) to over half (53.1%) but that still leaves 47% of teachers teaching the subject without a post A-level qualification. That's much higher than the vast majority of other subjects. The caveat here is that if you look at the mapping used by the DfE to determine what is a 'relevant' post A-level qualification, any teacher with a post A-level qualification in IT/ICT will be counted in that 53.1% as well as those with a computer science qualification. Therefore the percentage of teachers specifically qualified in Computer Science (ICT is not the same thing as Computer Science!) is likely to be much lower that 50%. 

It's accepted that a teachers subject content knowledge is important for the delivery of a high quality computing education: "Teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge are important factors in high-quality computing education. This is because this knowledge helps teachers decide, for example, what to teach, how to question students about it and how to deal with problems of misunderstanding. However, research consistently identifies that there is a lack of suitably qualified computing teachers to teach the subject." (Ofsted Computing Research Review)

There needs to be a bigger, concerted effort by government to address this issue given the importance of having well qualified computing teachers to the computing education of all key stages, especially KS5.

Addressing teacher supply

I'm not going to focus on general methods of making the teaching profession more attractive to graduates here such as more competitive pay and reduced workload. Those are obvious things that could be done to improve teacher supply across the board if there was the political will to do so. However I think some other things need to happen to address the disparity between computing and other subjects when it comes to the number of well qualified teachers available. 

The stigma of teaching in schools

The stigma of choosing school teaching as a career when you're studying in higher education is something I've experienced and believe to be very real. Why train as a teacher when you're qualified to do a "better" job? I'd often be asked whenever I'd voice it as something I was considering. I do think it has a certain amount to do with the general low level of respect there is for the job that teachers do in England. In the field of computer science though, there's also often a sense of derision in those comments aimed at someone whose chosen a career for reasons other then primarily monetary gain. My hypothesis is that this is in part due to the amount of marketing there is to prospective CS undergraduates about the amount of money you can make after graduation. Surely if you've applied for the course after seeing all that then money is why you're here, right? 

On the Oxford Brookes website (where I studied my degree) there's a big stat right at the top of the page relating to how much money you'll earn after graduation.

 

I looked at three other degree course pages including accounting and economics and none of the stats in the same space were about future earnings.

I know other universities do this, not just Oxford Brookes. I just picked them as an example as that's where I went. One major contributing factor to effective teaching is an enthusiasm for the subject. If we're to get more graduates that are passionate about teaching the subject to the next generation universities must surely promote their course based primarily on why computer science is such a fascinating subject to study. Mention the money available in some industry careers sure, but don't make that the primary reason students should choose a CS degree.

Teaching absent from careers advice

When it comes to careers advice, I've experienced it from a few different sources. All of these people started from a place of suggesting what they thought was best for me rather than what I wanted to do with my career. Whether it was the university or school careers advisors, or most other people for that matter, they saw I was studying computer science and the default response was to suggest going into software engineering. It's a good move for many CS graduates, however with a bit of further exploration of my interests and motivations they may have at least recommended considering other options such as teaching. 

In giving careers advice which focuses just on what the persons skills are, rather than considering their interests and motivations at the same time, many graduates who could be excellent teachers may be leaving university and going down "traditional" CS graduate routes without even considering teaching as an option. 

Lack of CPD for A-level teachers

It's positive that we're seeing lots of non-specialist teachers train to teach computer science up to GCSE level through the NCCE courses. I ask though what is next for those teachers if they want to move into teaching some A-level after a time? Are they expected to learn A-level through self-study? Is the opportunity only open to teachers in a school with a colleague who can train them? If that's the case how does A-level provision grow to reach a wider pool of potential students? There's far fewer CPD opportunities for teachers looking to upskill to teaching A-level computer science. Isaac Computer Science offers some courses but they're not as comprehensive as the teach computing offer for KS3 and KS4. More support is needed for teachers who've found their feet teaching KS3 and KS4 computer science and would like to make the move into teaching some A-level. 

There's a lot that can be done to generally making the teaching profession a more attractive sector to work in; the unions are doing a good job of making those arguments at the moment. In terms of boosting the computer science teaching workforce specifically though there are, in my view, some specific changes that can happen to ensure the continued growth of the subject, especially at A-level.