Our Blogs

As technology develops everyday, people have to constantly adapt and up-skill in order to keep up.

With this is mind, should children be taught the basics of how technology works in order to help them in the future?

Growing up my parents really emphasised the importance of extracurricular activities outside the classroom, including competitive swimming lessons twice a week and the odd hour or two during the weekend for good measure in preparation for my eleven plus exams predominately in mathematics, verbal and non-verbal reasoning. I don’t praise my parents enough for all the hard work and money they spent on me as I was growing up as it certainly did aid my learning process.

I’m adamant that these traditional activities are still in play for the new generation of children; however, anyone born after the year of 1994 will not know a life without the web or anything digital.  In the recent years, the UK has finally realised the importance of coding and how vital it is to ensure that children are aware of benefits of learning to code as we live in world dominated by software. 

Every other month or so, one of the famous broadsheet newspapers report about a “skills shortage” within IT as we’re now living in a digitally serviced age. I admit not every job in the world requires the ability to code; however, it is crucial to equip the next generation with computational thinking skills needed and how software engineers or developers solve problems by fusing together algorithms, mathematics, and logic by promoting a new way to think about the world. 

When I joined the technical team at Morgan McKinley, it was immediately evident that consultants here are genuinely well embedded and more importantly passionate about their verticals. Sharing my passion for technology and everything digital, I was lucky enough to partner with one of our clients; Fire Tech Camp, by co-hosting one of their Saturday classes in the Morgan McKinley offices in Central London where a group of children learn about hardware and software from the ages of 9 to 12 years old.

Fire Tech Camp provides children and teenagers with the opportunity to learn about technology in a series of exciting holiday camps, weekend courses and workshops; by taking a direct approach under the expert guidance of specialist tutors. 

Having seen them in action, I noticed how fun and engaging it was for these children as they were learning without even realising it and simultaneously making new friends! As Bill Gates once said, "Learning to write programs stretches your mind, and helps you think better, creates a way of thinking about things that I think is helpful in all domains". My extracurricular activities and any other outside of school activities helped to expand my knowledge and polish me as an individual. Fire Tech Camp does the same thing, but instead of boring textbooks or exercises they find creative ways to engage their brains rather than just interacting with technology, teaching them to create and express themselves in new ways.

 

Ricky Ahmed | Consultant, IT