The tech staff going back to school to teach the next generation

Not every software engineer wants to become a classroom teacher, but going back to school was always part of the career plan for Orla Sonvico.

She and three colleagues from Scottish tech firm Skyscanner are studying at Glasgow University as part of a new project to bolster the dwindling ranks of computing teachers.

Their numbers have been declining for almost two decades and fell by 25% between 2008 and 2023.

Now Orla is part of a “braided” career project, thought to be a first for Scotland, which is aiming to help reverse that decline.

The four employees taking part in the one-year Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) course will be paid their full Skyscanner salary.

Once she graduates, Orla will have two part-time jobs – working three days a week for Skyscanner and two days a week in school.

The university hopes other companies will come on board.

The tech industry is seen as more appealing than teaching by many computer science graduates because it tends to have higher salaries.

Those taking part in this project will be paid pro-rata for their three days at Skyscanner and by the council for their two days in the classroom – so they will only have to take a small dip in salary.

Orla, 26, from Glasgow, started working for Skyscanner earlier this year after being attracted by the split career scheme.

She said she had always wanted to work for a few years in industry and then move into teaching.

“But the more years you do in industry, the harder it gets to leave,” she said.

“When I saw this advertised… it was a very attractive option. It was something I couldn’t pass up.

“It’s a really easy route for us to go into teaching and not completely give up our careers in tech.”

Orla had been inspired by a female science teacher at school, and hopes to be a role model for others.

She also believes her work as a software engineer will benefit young people in the classroom.

“There’s a lot of transferable skills from both sides – that’s a huge advantage here,” she added.

Chief technology officer Andrew Phillips said Skyscanner had been built by grassroots talent in its early days.

The company hopes the project will encourage more pupils to study computing and work in tech.

“One in eight secondary pupils in Scotland now attend a school with no qualified computer science teacher.

“The future growth of Scotland’s tech industry will be dramatically constrained if the systematic challenge of a narrow local talent pipeline is not addressed. That starts at school level.”

Figures from the Scottish teacher census show computing teacher numbers have been falling since at least 2008.

Back then, there were 788 computing teachers; by 2023 the number had dropped by 25% to 588.

In addition, computing teachers aren’t getting any younger. According to the 2022 teacher census, one in five were aged over 55.

Every year the Scottish government’s workforce planning group reports on the recruitment target for teachers in specific subject areas, along with the actual number recruited.

An analysis of those figures by the BBC shows that Scotland had wanted to train 470 new computing teachers in the last 10 years, but got just 318 – falling short by 152 posts.

Last year the national target was 52 but only 16 people signed up to become computing science teachers on PGDE courses.

Dr Clare Smith is senior lecturer in science education and joint lead for the PGDE in computing science at Glasgow University.

She said the university introduced the new braided careers programme after noticing that it was struggling to recruit to the course, and that the access to the subject in schools was declining.

“There’s a real inequity in terms of the opportunity for young people to study computing science at school,” she said.

Dr Smith hopes the software engineers will help grow a new generation of tech experts.

“You can’t be what you can’t see, so when we have teachers who are also industry professionals not only do young people get to work with teachers who have cutting edge knowledge and skills, they’ll also be inspired to have careers in that industry,” she added.

“But we’re looking at issues with retention in teaching too. Having that double career path we hope will also improve retention in the future.”

Pupils at Hyndland Secondary School in Glasgow do have a computing science teacher and say they see clear benefits.

Pari says she loves the different skills involved including problem solving, creativity and thinking logically.

She hopes to study aerospace engineering and computing science at university.

“It’s not just about coding, it’s about thinking logically, being creative with technology,” she says.

“There’s lots of teamwork, which makes it more fun.”

The Scottish government said the number of students taking Higher and National 5 computing science had increased and was now above pre-pandemic levels.

It said it had established and funded an organisation which promotes and supports computing science education, along with initiatives to promote teaching as a career choice for computing students.

“We are working hard to encourage more students to take up a career in teaching,” added a spokesperson.

“Our teaching bursary scheme offers a payment to career changers undertaking graduate teacher training in hard-to-fill subjects, including computing science.”