Michael Gove’s plan
to teach real computer science in schools is a great idea. I know this
because I’ve spent the last three years developing an organisation called Young
Rewired State, which finds and fosters children who’ve taught themselves
how to code by introducing them to open data and a community of their peers.

The uptake has been fantastic and we’ve enjoyed plenty of support from
business leaders, who are desperate to engage with young, innovative
developers, but are all-too-often unable to find any.

But who says only children can learn to code? A new survey has found 28 per
cent of UK adults wish they had pursued a career in technology – citing
reasons such as salary, the intellectual challenge and wider job
opportunities – and yet very few are willing to attempt the career change.

According to the survey – carried out by Hotels.com
– 45 per cent won’t switch careers as they ‘don’t have a degree in IT’, 30
per cent because they ‘would need to retrain’, and 40 per cent because they
feel they are ‘too old’ to change jobs.

Are these people correct in thinking that moving into computers is an
unachievable goal? And with over 110,000 IT vacancies in the UK, and the IT
workforce expected to grow by a further 113,000 by 2015, can we afford to
wait for our children to plug the gap?

There’s no doubt learning to code as an adult is daunting. With children as
young as seven turning up to my events – some with programming skills
already outstripping their mentors and teachers – I can tell you it is
frankly terrifying when I look at my own basic skillset. What would I do if
I had to go and do something completely new? My doddery old skills wouldn’t
keep me ahead of the game for long.

But my experience has also shown me the difference between skills I could
learn if I chose to, and those which are best left to the natural geniuses
who can code in their sleep and do maths for fun. And it is simply not that
hard to get the basics.

A good understanding of computational thinking is where you start – if you can
tackle ones of those old Logic Problems magazines then you can pick up the
basics of programming. There are so many free resources out there to teach
yourself basic-, medium- and advanced-level programming – resources which
teach you how to build a game, how to code a website, or how to build a
mobile app if that takes your fancy.

It’s like music. You can choose your instrument from a wide variety of
computing languages and tools. You can choose what style of music to play,
and whether to learn through understanding sheet music and the theory, or by
thumping about a bit and sounding awful, making mistakes until you manage to
bang out Chopsticks.

So where are these resources? A few useful links are below, but the truth is
they change so quickly as new ones come along that are better. And besides,
part of the journey of finding the right language for you is through your
own discovery.

But start by reading up on the different
computing languages. When you tire of one, go explore another and so on
until you find one you are excited by, or which makes sense to you. Then hunt
about for courses, online learning, YouTube videos, books or whichever
medium works best with your brain. There are precious few real-life courses,
but you might be lucky.

The science is harder, yes. But as a career for an adult to turn to, for
something to keep your brain cells challenged and that will give you a way
in to an ever-growing pool of jobs – or if you choose, to create your own
thing and be your own boss – it is tough to beat.

Useful links

Code Academy – http://www.codecademy.com/

Alice – http://www.alice.org/

Scratch – http://scratch.mit.edu/

2simple – http://www.2simple.com/2diy/

Emma Mulqueeny runs Young
Rewired State. Rewired State’s ‘Parliament
Hack’ – an open 48-hour hackathon in the Houses of Parliament –
takes place tomorrow in Westminster.