Nursery World - Learning & Development: Computational Thinking

Computational skills need to be reflected in curricula and practice, writes Marc Faulder in the first part of a new series on teaching computational thinking in the early years

Part of the challenge for any education system is to equip children with the skills that they will one day need in the world of work. Predicting job requirements is never easy, but what seems indisputable is that ‘coding’ and ‘computational thinking’ will become essential skills for a vast array of jobs – not just in the Silicon Valleys of the world but across all sectors from health to retail.

The extent to which education systems are failing to keep pace with requirements is seen in the current skills gap, with the demand for computer programmers and software developers far outstripping the number of people who understand the concepts of coding – a problem that is being felt across Europe and the rest of the world (Schoolnet, 2015).

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