Whatever is done to keep people up to date, it is always the case that when large numbers of users are involved it is expensive and difficult to keep infrastructure up to date. There is also the hassle factor, where it takes a large staff to maintain a large environment – or so they would have you believe!
One area where all this is more of an issue than most is in schools where finance has always been slow to keep up with technology (not that that is unique to schools though!). Some schools still have no proper network, or have PC’s that are slow and outdated and software that is so far behind on updates and functionality it might as well not be there. Lip service is paid to the extremities of the educational sectors and the “out of sight is out of mind” culture is certainly the case. In some schools, where influence is pushed on a personal basis, schools have fantastic facilities. In some outlying places this applies too, but in many areas there is a “let them eat cake” attitude as there is little impact on the next election, or on the offspring of a notary.
Our “wonderful” government makes noises and placatory gestures towards those who finance them, but even after all the catastrophes in the Public Sector they still have little idea about IT and delivery of large scale projects. It seems that few people have stood back and taken the more holistic view about bigger projects. Many of the larger commercial companies have monster environments that take a project in its entirety and drive it through. This can result in problems as the press just love to lead with disaster headlines – let’s face it, it’s rare that good news makes the banners or even the front page! My company is smaller than most departments in a large corporate but any project is vital to us and gets real focused attention. It’s not that I’m taking anything away from these companies, or those like them, but losing one small project may do a little damage to them but would finish my company off.
So, what has this to do with UKITA you ask (maybe!)? Well, it has a lot to do with our offerings as we are the IT equivalent of the “grass roots” in sport. The bigger companies have an influence at the later stages of education, the smaller companies have more influential locally. We also have a tremendous amount of experience in delivering smaller projects that can fit into bigger “jigsaws” of programmes such as the huge Public Sector projects being undertaken by the giant corporate companies. What makes the difference is that each small project run by an individual company is vital to them; it has less chance of disappearing off their radar as other more high-profile jobs take precedence. The understanding of how this process works needs to be taught early, and the effect on the commercials of a business should be part of that learning.
It is my opinion that we need more basic training earlier in life for our young people. Perhaps we should introduce PM1 in high school year 8 or 9 as a mandatory subject, and put full project management knowledge in at A-level grade to ensure that any prospective technician understands where to start? We teach basic technology to kids at primary level, they even get measured on ICT at 8 years old. My son came home with a “could do better” on his CBT report, I told him to relax and enjoy what he was doing as I thought it no big deal – his mother was not quite as impressed and it looks like I’m to help now! If we try really hard and think about taking a different way out of the maze maybe we will go back to the obvious place and start at the beginning.
Everyone in the country has at some time or another, criticized one or another of our sports teams. We can’t run, we can’t kick a ball or tackle, or jump high or long enough. The press love to slap anyone they can call a loser – if you want to represent the country now at any sport you need to be a perfect 10 who is a teetotal, clean, perfect citizen who never loses, otherwise the media will have you! Look, for example, at the way soccer and tennis are trying to build the youth culture here to support their sports. To produce champions we need to be able to identify the ability. Without providing a place for kids to show they have the ability we lose the march on this from day one.
I see the new diploma systems for schools and colleges being the way forward for our baseline technologies. If, as in the past, there is a way through industry learning the basics, then surely this path is one way of bringing a technology apprenticeship one step closer. It should be fun to learn and there needs to be a way to provide the larger companies with staff who have had good grounding in the industry. Leaving college and going straight into a huge environment where the company is changing the world is exciting – knowing what to do there from day one is infinitely more satisfying, and much more productive for that large environment.
Still, for all my ranting about putting people to the desk and forcing them to take a subject that bores the pants off me, it still needs incentive and a decent curriculum to run alongside proper practical knowledge. I left school early, just after my O-levels and took an apprenticeship with a day-release City and Guilds Technical Certificate for my paper piece. I can still just about explain how a Bowater Scott paper mill works and provides toilet paper for the world – not really an Einstein! I just think there has to be an alternative to all the financial waste we see every day on huge IT projects where large companies use the “make-do” people for small sub-projects on major programmes. It just means we have not got it right at base level and need to think again. The first thing to do is make sure the fundamentals are done properly and that the teachers and the kids have the right tools for the job.
Remember that the right man for the job is the one that can do it right, first time – to be capable of doing this, they must have learned how to do it somehow, somewhere!
Remember Phiz? MD of JoraPh Consulting Limited
Quote of the day: "I thought it was the done thing until I stopped banging my head against the wall and the pain stopped!" - Phiz after learning that man-management can be done in easier ways.
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