The European Commission is concerned that teachers lack ICT skills.  (ICT stands for information and communication technology.)  According to an article published today (April 22, 2013) by the UK website IT Pro, the EC surveyed 27 countries in the European Union, and received over 190,000 responses.  The results including the following findings:

• Teachers are not required to learn ICT skills
• Many teachers learn ICT in their spare time, on their own
• One fifth of secondary level students have never used a computer during school instruction

There’s no telling what the needed skills will be when these children grow up, graduate, and enter the work force.  It’s not unrealistic to expect that some of the hottest jobs these future grads will face will require skills that don’t exist today.  Who would have envisioned ten years ago such jobs as news aggregator, social mood content analyzer, search engine optimizer, or mobile phone app developer?  There are entire companies today that exist to provide software for the Apple iPad, a device that was first introduced on April 3, 2010 – barely two years ago.

One prediction seems to be easy to make:  computers will play a role in most of the hot jobs of the near future. To be best prepared for such jobs, students today need a foundation in ICT.  

And so do their teachers.