The Director's Cut: Adopt a school

My daughter has said she wants to be many things in life. Sadly - perhaps predictably - being an IT director has never been one of them. I wonder why.

There is still time for Olivia to change her mind but survey after survey indicates she is unlikely to do so. The fact is that students at school and university continue to be unimpressed with IT and IT’s image and they rarely consider it as a career.

Perhaps we as IT leaders can do more to champion our cause inside schools. Together with reading, writing and arithmetic skills in the use of IT are essential for the education and future success of our children. Future generations' very survival in the commercial world depends on it as does the future of UK Plc.

Of course many of them are familiar and adept with the web, email, IM and chat rooms and this is will help in taking them one stage further. They need to be thinking about what is possible now and in the future, applying technology and academic understanding to the real world they will face.

I am inviting you, as a leader, and as an IT team, to adopt a local school.

Make contact with teaching staff of local schools and colleges. Offer short visits to your company to see how IT is being used within industry and commerce. Encourage older students to work in the IT department during holidays. Provide talks at local schools. Be a mentor to the head, or IT, teacher.

From the school’s point of view they, and their children, would gain access to a local IT department – to see how it all works in practice and give a new perspective - an increased number of outside experts coming to talk with them and a level of knowledge they could not afford on the open market.

The IT director and their company would gain access to school leavers who could join them, or work during vacations, an opportunity to shape the future lives of children and to spread the word about the importance of IT in business.

Then there's the local publicity and an opportunity to put something back into the community.

Such actions need not take up vast amounts of time. IT directors who invest two hours a month would make a significant impact. This will form a powerful step in bridging the gap between the academic and commercial communities.

The more we can do to raise the profile, and gain acceptance, of information technology as a core skill, the more chance we have of equipping future generations with the learning and knowledge they and the country will need.

We still put across a techie image of wires and cables, confusing code and calculations. We must raise IT above this to become a positive image, a vision, a personal experience. When we do this we will capture children’s imagination.

There is also an urgent need to push the positive aspects of IT. Project failures and skills shortages have dragged us down for too long. There has to be a more positive agenda based on IT being a powerful business enabler, a force for good, driven by charismatic leaders.

With a business agenda first, technical agenda second, this campaign will encourage people to understand the power of IT in business and the wider world. It is about the future fundamentals of business and commercial life. It is about IT becoming a recognised way of life, at the very heart of everything we do.

We can offer future generations the chance to understand and experience the business benefit of technologies we never dreamed possible. In short, they can be a central part of the information economy, the age of opportunity.

All of us have the chance to be involved in a constructive, positive and active way. IT directors everywhere, contact your local school and play your part in transforming the very future of IT in business.

David Taylor is the author of best-selling business book The Naked Leader (www.nakedleader.com), president of IT directors association Certus (now part of NCC) and a regular contributor to silicon.com.

Do you agree with his thinking? Email editorial@silicon.com to let us know.