The intersection between regional barriers and digital skills divides for young people
The opportunity to thrive for our young people – whether academically, professionally or otherwise – is, despite the best efforts of many, still often determined by one’s location. In an increasingly digitised world, it is easy to imagine that all geographical barriers to opportunity and access have been rendered null and void. After all, you can feasibly work, study and even socialise from any location. The prevalence of learning-by-distance courses or remote-based internships might lead some to believe that all young people are reaping the benefits of digitisation.
However, the advantages of a digitised world have been felt unevenly, and even in some cases, innovation has exacerbated regional inequalities. The Digital Poverty Alliance aims to uncover and address some of these inequalities and has found as many as one in five children are unable to get online. Ofcom’s 2023 Media Use and Attitudes survey found that 19 per cent of children share devices with others, with eight per cent being forced to either postpone or not complete their schoolwork because of inconsistent access to devices. An inability to access the internet on an appropriate device places these children at an unquestionable disadvantage when considering that more and more of their educational sphere is being made digital – from connecting with their teachers to completing homework, researching coursework, and even applying for further studies.
Digital Skills in Education: Addressing the Regional Imbalance in UK Schools
Research from the British Academy suggests a strong correlation between local authority indices of deprivation and digital poverty. Not only are young people in such areas placed at an immediate disadvantage in their daily lives by being unable to carry out the same activities as their peers, but they are also placed at a disadvantage later in life. They are less likely to develop essential digital skills, explore a technology-based career, or even be familiar with key technology used in the workplace. With the burgeoning AI revolution likely to set the tone for the future employment market, we certainly need to consider how we prepare our young people – across every region of the UK – for this emerging reality.
Young people must be given every chance to thrive, in part, by supporting excellence in computer science and digital strategies in schools. However, experts in computer science education are not evenly distributed; STEM Learning found that there are numerous pockets of English schools without computer science specialists, particularly in the South West, Midlands and North West. What’s more, non-expert educators can often be on the backfoot. Consider the missed potential for many educational technology (EdTech) solutions, for instance, which can be fantastic resources to facilitate children’s acquisition of digital skills, support teachers with effective classroom management and simplify schools’ IT infrastructure when they are used with understanding and purpose. However, a recent report from UNESCO suggests the implementation of EdTech often leaves much to be desired; in the US, a staggering 98 per cent of EdTech licenses were not used to their full capability. Teachers can feel overburdened with numerous different EdTech solutions to use, with many functions frequently overlapping; they are rarely afforded the vital training needed to keep pace with the systems they are being asked to use. An ill-designed digital strategy hampers the ability of educators to deliver the best for their pupils, and some parts of the country are experiencing this more sharply than others.
From Digital Exclusion to Inclusion: Strategies for Enhancing Young People’s Tech Skills
Infrastructure also poses a clear challenge for certain areas of the UK. It is perhaps not altogether surprising that some of the most remote and deprived areas of the UK are also those with the slowest broadband speeds. Further still, rising costs mean that many are having to choose cheaper broadband packages; evidence from the Institute for Development Studies suggests these cheaper tariffs result in slower speeds. Reduced connectivity makes any online learning or work opportunities become more difficult to pursue. Gaps in resources – both in terms of devices and fit-for-purpose networks – mean that those who are already left behind are all but guaranteed to fall further still. A report from Tech UK found that not only are there splits between the nations of the UK, but also between the North and the South; regions with the biggest tech investment areas are “predictably” home to “a strong digital ecosystem across multiple components” which can deliver reliable connectivity to local students and schools.
Academic opportunities to access a formal education in computer science are also not distributed evenly. The 2017 Roehampton Annual Computing Education Report found that in 2015, 29.5% of urban English schools offered GCSE computing, while in rural schools this dropped to 22.7%. Further still, when considering the regional performance of learners, data on GCSE results, broken down by Ofqual based on regional attainment, appear to demonstrate that there are more regional discrepancies in the achievement of a grade 4 or above in Computing than in GCSE subjects taken as a whole. This suggests perhaps regional location also has a bearing on attainment in this subject, pointing towards a negative loop of fewer qualifications, lagging infrastructure and a lack of specialist teachers.
Unlocking Potential: The Importance of Digital Competency for Young People in Different Regions
Although registrations for GCSEs and A levels for Computing are on the rise, the workforce has yet to reap these benefits. Recent research suggests only 11 per cent of UK workers possess advanced digital skills compared to the 72 per cent of businesses seeking appropriately skilled workers. A rethink is clearly needed; beyond issues of upscaling the resources available to young people to ensure all have equal access and opportunity (an approach taken by the Digital Poverty Alliance), one of the most critical steps is to reshape how we impart digital skills to our young people. Giving learners of all ages and stages of life the opportunity to adapt to a more technologically-driven economy also means supporting the acquisition of other essential skills; effective communication, strategic problem solving and rigorous curiosity.
Providing avenues of access to digital skills both well ahead of and far beyond Key Stages 3 and 4 is also vitally important. Embedding digital skills in a holistic, cross-curricular approach from early years education is vital in helping these skills become engrained and consolidated. Far from relegating them to a computer lab, digital skills should be integrated into English lessons, history coursework, lab experiments and more. Equally important is responding to the needs of local communities and economies by providing digital skills training in multiple formats; from modules in partnerships with HE and FE providers in the region, to apprenticeship schemes with local employers, in-house training and the availability of digital skills bootcamps, so that the skills of the future generations meet industry need.
Redefining what technological knowledge looks like can be informed by the available resources and needs of employers in each region. Success inspires further success, and by creating chances for all to thrive, the regional barriers to young people thriving in an increasingly digital world will be broken down.
Written by Al Kingsley, Group CEO of NetSupport
Al Kingsley is Group CEO of NetSupport, as well as Chair of a Multi-Academy Trust and of an Alternative Provision Academy. As well as his CEO and Chair roles Al is chair of his region’s Governors’ Leadership Group and chairs the regions SEND Board. With 20+ years of governance experience, Al also sits on the Regional Schools Directors Advisory Board for the East of England. He is a FED Co-chair, Chair of the BESA EdTech Group and chairs his regional Employment and Skills Board.