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Microsoft, Facebook Declare European Kids Clueless About Coding, Too
theodp writes: Having declared U.S. kids clueless about coding, Facebook and Microsoft are now turning their attention to Europe's young 'uns. "As stewards of Europe's future generations," begins the Open Letter to the European Union Ministers for Education signed by Facebook and Microsoft, "you will be all too aware that as early as the age of 7, children reach a critical juncture, when they are learning the core life skills of reading, writing and basic maths. However, to flourish in tomorrow's digital economy and society, they should also be learning to code. And many, sadly, are not." Released at the launch of the European Coding Initiative — aka All You Need is Code! (video) — in conjunction with the EU's Code Week, the letter closes, "As experts in our field, we owe it to Europe's youth to help equip them with the skills they will need to succeed — regardless of where life takes them."
The only competent coders in the world are the ones who will work for $8/hour.
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Translation: We need to flood the job market so we can hire cheaper workers. Is anyone actually buying this?
Of course they are saying that. According to these huge multinationals, the only ones who are not clueless are always conveniently the ones from countries who will accept dirt cheap wages. Funny how that works out.
Maybe we should explain how social structure works, and how human desires come into play when mixed with it - rather than teach them how to operate machines.
...oh yeah, the adults have to learn that first...
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
As a former European kid, can I declare Microsoft clueless about coding too?
These 7 yr olds need to learn to EAT THEIR BROCCOLI!
Oops, forgot... parents around the world have already been doing that forever.
You can't exactly nurture a consumer based economy to support your profits, then complain that it's not producing enough builders.
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Dear Europe and America ...
From the Christian Alliance for World Dominance: Your young ones need to learn our stuff.
From the Muslim Alliance for World Dominance: Your young ones need to learn our stuff.
From the Fossil Fuel Alliance for World Dominance: Your young ones need to learn our stuff.
From the Science Alliance for World Dominance: Your young ones need to learn our stuff.
From the Welding Alliance for World Dominance: Your young ones need to learn our stuff. ...
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Whatever happened to teaching the kids the fundamentals of math and logic, never mind reading comprehension? Guess what? All of that is far more important to learning to code than the actual code itself. I find it ironic to imply that the kids are lost if they don't start to learn actual code that young. When I started programming, computers weren't even really available to anyone. I had good knowledge of math and logic, and was able to figure it out on my own over 35 years ago, and keep up with 'all of the latest trends' and have quite a successful career.
What I learned that help me do this, was how to learn. Start teaching that, and you will find they are prepared for whatever comes down the line in the future. Stop making automatons.....
Jim
My company has been trying to hire the 12 year old and younger set because they are cheap but out of all the ones we've interviewed they can't pass the technical phase of the interview process.
Out of desperation we've been forced to hire CS and EE college grads that learned how to code as undergrads. They're ok. They typically know C, Java, Python, and such but we have still not found a candidate that has 2+ years experience writing device drivers in Scratch.
The same kind of protagonists are performing the same schtick in the US and in Europe.
STEM is called MINT, skill gap is Fachkräftemangel, and H1B is called "blue card" (yes. someone mixed up work permit and permanent residency when looking for a catchy name)
Arguments are the same, debate is the same.
And it becomes slightly absurd when immigration officers at a US border somehow expect every other country but the US to be a 3rd world hole people would be happy to trade in for a McJob in the US of A. They can't even imagine that someone likes their job and their home country and actually WANTS to go home after their visit.
bickerdyke
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Hey now, market forces only work for the rich. They're not supposed to work for their employees!
Look, I try to explain my though on this and everytime I do, my karma gets blasted. Please try to understand I'm not against anyone here or the principals that you stand for - I'm only stating my opinion. I don't teach my kids to code because I want them to focus on a field that has a future that could lead them to have a lucrative career, be successful, financially secure and someday marry a lovely wife and give me some great grandchildren. Coding is not that path. There are several factors that contribute. 1) We have people that come from other countries that bring with them a lower standard of living. Those people can be qualified for these types of jobs, and will bring the average salary down with them - simply because they'll accept less. 2) Our society is not impressed with those with brains. We are more geared toward giving money to the football team mentality, which basically entails - follow the team, take orders and don't think. These are the people that tend to become successful, as I have witnessed anyway. We also tend to make a joke of the bright. We make movies like "the intern" that shows smart people as not fun, not cool, and not someone you want to be. You want to be more like the idiots - Vaughn and Wilson. Smart people aren't respected, and as a result, society doesn't pay them. We'd rather pay the firefighters, our heroes. 3) Coders aren't the best business people. Although I understand the whole free software movement, and like aspects of it, it's bringing us all down as people who have a chance to be paid well (as I believe we should). My salary is not sufficient for joining the country club, or eating at the high end steak joints. My sales buddies have left me in the dust. When something is made to be free, for indirect reasons that I won't get into - it's quality goes down, and it's value goes down. Companies that make software have to come up with creative ways to even make money doing this anymore. I wish we'd take a cue from the artists and musicians, who constantly speak of the way that their product now being free has destroyed their industry, and led to nothing but crap being produced these days. So... For my kids? They're extremely bright - and could actually learn calculus and perhaps write brilliant code. But I'm going to steer them towards some public sector job - like spraying water on a fire - because that's how they'll become successful. They'll get the good healthcare benefits (that we pay for handsomely) that last for life, they'll work 3 days on and 4 days off, which will give them an opportunity to create some meathead company like landscaping or HVAC - then they won't have to pay taxes anymore either. It's just my opinion - but I really think we've shot ourselves in the foot.
With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community.
Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century.
Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. It is provided free of charge.
If you have kids, you should introduce them to scratch!
I dare say that we don't lack programmers. But considering the wages of C-Level execs, there must be an incredible shortage of them.
In a nutshell, we need A DAMN LOT more C-Level managers. Push kids into MBA courses. A few decades of graduates might finally get that salary level back to something more in touch with their actual worth.
Huh? What do you mean, that's not what you meant? Care to elaborate?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
structural engineering, gastrointestinal surgery, quantum mechanics, income tax law, synthesizing pharmaceuticals, etc...
Some are calling the phenomenon "being kids".
So much for reintroducing child labour.
I'm certain places like India, and China have more "favorable" children?