Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what changes they intend to make to the (1) education, and (2) qualification, systems, including early years, secondary, and further education, to ensure that young people are at the forefront of the fourth industrial revolution.

The government has a number of interventions in place to help promote and support digital skills. The Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework includes a section titled ‘Understanding the world’. This involves children understanding the physical world and community through opportunities to explore, observe, and find out about their broader environment, including the technology within their environment.

In primary and secondary education, the 2014 key stage 1-4 computing curriculum, together with reformed GCSEs and A levels, represents a significant step-change from the previous out-dated approach, and include new challenging content such as coding, Boolean logic, and algorithms.

The government is investing £84 million of new funding over the next five years to improve the teaching of computing and drive up participation in computer science qualifications, particularly amongst girls. This will include increasing the expertise of up to 8,000 existing computer science teachers and a new National Centre for Computing Education.

We are investing £500 million in reforming the technical education system, which includes the development of a specialist digital route with a clear pathway to employment. The government has also introduced new digital degree apprenticeships, which are employer accredited and have seen a growing number of employers and universities come together to create high quality curricula. In addition, the government has supported the creation of Ada, the National College of Digital Skills, which will teach up to 5,000 students over the next seven years for a wide range of digital careers.