Australia: from the consumers to the creators of technology

As someone who never saw an actual computer until two years into computer programming, it goes without saying that technology has changed a lot since my student days at Brighton High School in Adelaide. Today, it seems like every teenager has a smartphone. In many schools, both public and private, every child is given a laptop to use. The tools for learning and creating are now more accessible than ever.

Yet despite having these tools, Australia risks remaining the consumers, rather than becoming the creators, of technology. This is the difference between using a smartphone, and creating an app that reaches millions of people. At Google, we believe education is what will unlock this potential and that’s why we’re calling for a greater focus on science and maths education in Australia.

As an employer of hundreds of engineers in Australia, Google has a front row seat in the area of computer science. Right now, we’re seeing too few Aussies studying computer science, resulting in a workforce lacking a key skill.

A recent report by our nation’s chief scientist Ian Chubb, also showed that university graduation rates in maths, engineering and science are low by international standards. When it comes to high school, OECD testing shows we’re stagnant in maths and slipping in science.

This is not only a problem for Google and industry, but also for Australia’s future prosperity. Of course Google benefits when more people want to become computer engineers, but science, technology, engineering and maths education are the building blocks to a whole range of industries, such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing, energy and resources. These skills are vital to our innovation economy and essential if we’re to become a nation of creators and not just a nation of consumers.

We recognise the problems facing educational systems are multi-dimensional, and don’t pretend we have the answers. But we want to do our part to draw attention to this issue, and help where we can.

One practical way we want to help is to support the teachers who are central to education. Computer science education in Australia is currently piecemeal, with dedicated and passionate teachers having to pick up the slack. A common problem for these teachers is the lack of professional development to stay ahead of increasingly tech-savvy students.

In response we recently announced a collaboration with nine universities across Australia and New Zealand to deliver free computer science training to high school teachers. Named Computer Science for High Schools -- or CS4HS -- the program aims to promote computer science and computational thinking in high school and middle school curriculum. With a “teach the teachers” approach, Google funds universities to develop 2-3 day workshops that provide training, tips, and actual classroom materials to help them teach programming and computing in their schools. Through CS4HS, we plan to help reach 20,000 students across Australia and New Zealand this year.

This is a modest first step but but we think teaching the teachers is a scalable way to make a difference and we also hope this will draw attention to the area and encourage other organisations to commit to this space.

Over the coming weeks, some of our Aussie Googlers will share their story about their careers in computer science and touch on some other ways we think we can use our passion and technology to help.

Australia can be home to a Silicon Beach of innovation, but for that to happen we need an educated workforce who have the right skills for the future.

Posted by Alan Noble, Engineer Director, Google Australia