Labor wants coding taught in all Australian schools

A Shorten Labor government would ensure that coding and other digital literacy skills are taught in all Australian primary and secondary schools.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten made this pledge in his 2015 Budget Reply speech, which excoriates the government for not doing enough to address the challenges of the digital age.

“Nothing matters more to Labor than securing the jobs of the future. Jobs that help Australians aim high, raise families and lift their standard of living. And the new jobs of the future require new skills,” he said.

“Three out of every four of the fastest growing occupations in Australia will require skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. ... Coding is the literacy of the 21st century. ... Yet right now, in our schools, TAFES and universities, there not enough people are acquiring these skills.”

He said a Labor government will pledge to ensure that digital technologies, computer science and coding are taught in all Australian schools.

Labor has also proposed to improve the STEM skills of 25,000 current teachers, train 25,000 new teachers who are science and technology graduates, write off the HECS debt of 100,000 STEM students and encourage more women to study, teach and work in the fields.

The Australian Computer Society (ACS) has welcomed the announcement, but warned that Australia can’t wait until 2017 to introduce initiatives including teaching coding in schools.

“The evidence globally is compelling. The jobs of the future will require core skills in computational thinking and coding. These are the new foundation skills for the students of today,” ACS CEO Andrew Johnson said.

“The ACS urges bipartisanship from our political parties on this critical issue. Together with the strong support for coding and STEM skills we are now seeing from the business community, the ACS believes we now have a powerful platform and alignment of views to take these initiatives forward immediately.”

Shorten has also proposed a $500 million Smart Investment Fund to back new technologies and innovations. He cited locally developed online job search website Seek.com as an example of the type of transformative Australian innovation that would be eligible for funds from the scheme.

He added that a Shorten Labor government would also work with the banks and finance industry to establish StartUp Finance, a partial guarantee scheme designed to allow entrepreneurs to access the capital they require.

Image courtesy of Michael Himbeault under CC