‘Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower’
– Apple co-founder Steve Jobs
Schoolteacher Toni Scullion is on a digital mission to both inspire and capture the imagination of a generation of Scots youngsters to embrace computer science – with a particular focus on closing the gender gap. She has practically single-handedly attracted some of the largest financial names on the planet to sign-up to a new initiative, to make a real and lasting difference as the subject threatens to all but disappear from the curriculum.
Scotland faces a big digital challenge as it emerges from COVID-19 but there is hope on the horizon to arrest what amounts to a highly damaging shortfall in filling computer science-based jobs that underpin everything in terms of the country’s technological advancement. It’s so serious for the economy and society at large that a minimum of several thousand job vacancies are being left unfilled annually. It’s been known for some years that such a growing global crisis exists. One tech expert has described it as an ‘education emergency’.
The lingering pandemic has left the country in a significantly weakened position when it comes to building an inclusive and resilient economy, positioning Scotland on the global stage as a leading tech hub and all this means to the wider society. Perhaps Scotland has over-relied on its undoubted strength as a location when it comes to attracting digital talent to its shores. The answer now lies in thinking more indigenously by accelerating homegrown digital educational and career opportunities. Step up younger members of society. Already endowed as second nature with their ‘whizz kid’ social media and associated tech knowhow, surely it’s not too big a digital leap to get them computer coding en masse in our schools?
St Kentigern’s comprehensive schoolteacher Toni Scullion is the inspiration behind a new venture called the Digital Technology Education Charter (DTEC). DTEC represents a concerted effort to make a real and lasting difference in computing science uptake, especially when it comes to closing the gender gap ‘by inspiring, supporting and engaging pupils’.
Between lessons, West Lothian-based Toni has already founded dressCode, a charity making a dent in the computing science gender gap and building a network of free lunchtime clubs in schools, aimed at bridging the gap between education and industry to enable young girls, aged 11-13, to see the opportunities in tech with the hope of flooding Scotland’s talent pipeline. Participants are learning about games design and making projects on the Scratch 2.0 free programming language and online community for interactive stories, games and animations, web development, cyber security and apps design.
Toni is also behind the multi award-winning Turing’s Testers, helping inspire the next generation of talent into the tech sector as advocates of STEM, shorthand for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. And if that wasn’t enough, she is co-founder of ada.scot, a festival open to pupils, teachers, parents and anyone with an interest in redressing gender imbalance in computing science education and the tech sector more widely.
Now DTEC is bringing industry and academia closer together to inspire the current and successive young generations into computing coupled with raising awareness of the diverse career skills opportunities that exist in the tech sector. Sign-up so far to the charter is impressive. More than 60 organisations are involved including American finance giants JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, together with Institute of Directors Scotland, Head Resourcing, and the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Toni says we are witnessing computer science as a key subject all but disappearing from the school curriculum: ‘On average 13,000 digital jobs are created in Scotland every year, but through apprenticeships and graduates we are only training around 5,000 to fill them’.
Morgan Stanley executive director technology Eve Wallace speaks of an ‘outdated perception’ and general lack of awareness of the opportunities on offer within technology. This is inhibiting talented people from exploring and ultimately building successful careers in the industry.
Louise MacDonald, Scottish national director of the Institute of Directors, says it’s vital schools, industry, academia and other stakeholders together identify what more can be achieved to ‘collaborate and catalyse’ change.
Scotland already has what appears to be an A to Z of tech organisations so why will DTEC be any different? Back to Toni. For her, it has to work, as the statistics make for a sober read: in 2001 computing science uptake totalled 28,393 but this year it has shrunk to 10,228. ‘We need to think what we are doing differently… to convincingly reverse this downward spiral if Scotland is to truly be a digital nation’, she said, adding that it should be all about investing in computing science in a manner more proportionate to its importance to the Scottish economy and all that this means in terms of the well-being of you and me.
Leadership is an overused term but it is always fascinating for me to discover the ‘real deal’. Toni Scullion has received a number of accolades recognising her work to advance computer science and improve diversity – and rightly so. She has been nominated as ‘Secondary Teacher of the Year’ three times, winning twice, and her charity dressCode has received multiple awards.
The terms ‘diversity champion’, ‘best mentor’ and ‘team leader’ along with ‘best educator’ are highlighted again and again. A secondary schoolteacher for the past decade, Toni has a bachelor of science with honours degree (computing science) from Edinburgh Napier University, a postgraduate diploma in secondary education and teaching from University of Strathclyde, and a masters degree (professional enquiry, educational leadership) from University of Stirling.
The Scottish Parliament has, on at least three occasions, passed a motion congratulating Toni on her success at cyber security awards, charity work and other accolades. Toni has been a speaker at many conferences and other events talking about her work including EduTech, MBN Solutions, Cyber Scotland, PWC, and the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
I wonder if this clever yet unassuming digital teaching innovator and inspiration to others needs an agent…
Former Reuters, Sunday Times, The Scotsman and Glasgow Herald business and finance correspondent, Bill Magee is a columnist writing tech-based articles for Daily Business, Institute of Directors, Edinburgh Chamber and occasionally The Times’ ‘Thunderer’
By Bill Magee | 26 October 2021