Why is it important to teach children programming?
According to the EC data, over 90% of today’s jobs require some computer skills, at the same time the number of computer science graduates does not meet the labour market demand in the field – by 2015 Bulgaria will be in need of 25 000 new computer specialists. If we fail to address this problem nationally and across Europe, we may be facing a shortage of 900 000 computer specialists by 2020.
With less than 1% economic growth in the last few years, the ICT sector in Bulgaria is experiencing an increase of 10% per year, there is no crisis, and the average wage for the sector is between BGN 2000 and 3500.
The demographic crisis, the immigration rate and the lack of practical skills during the course of education are among the main challenges facing the sector.
How can young people be motivated to stay in Bulgaria and how can youth unemployment be reduced were some of the issues discussed during last week’s Digital KidZ conference, dedicated to children, where the Head of the Department of Computer Science at Varna Free University, Assoc. Prof. Galina Momcheva, took part.
- Scratch society in Bulgaria. Scratch is the most popular “programming language”, suitable for children over the age of 8, which allows them to create animated stories, interactive games and film scripts with no preliminary preparation or knowledge, at the same time teaching them the basic principles of visual programming and developing their creative thinking and communication skills.
Scratch training was among the key issues discussed during the European programming week, which took place for a second year in a row, between 11th and 17th October. The Vice Chair of the European Commission Neelie Kroes and commissioner Androulla Vassiliou called upon the ministers for education of the EU member states to encourage children to acquire programming skills, and to popularize programming in Europe as part of the solution for youth unemployment.
“Any interaction between people and computers is done via a programme code. Programming is everywhere and is crucial to the understanding of our hyperlinked world. Programming is the literacy of today.”