Here’s something seldom talked about, and maybe it’s only my experience.
I was born ‘89 and in the midlands of the UK, so I missed these programmes (although my mother didn’t and even as a non-techy person could write BBC basic on a C64, which is where I got my interest).
But growing up there were quite literally no resources to learn anything about computers or programming. All courses in school were “computing” which was Microsoft excel and word courses; if you were really lucky it would be Microsoft access. They were specifically tailored for office work, not understanding computers.
As I aged, I found courses on networking (specifically Cisco) in college, however they all closed the year before I could take them.
I did manage to take a college course but I had to commute 4.5hrs a day for 2 years to take it, which was quite demanding. And I was in the last group who could ever take that course. (It closed the year after I started, I was literally the last group in). And there the only thing they taught me programming related was Visual Basic. (Although they did teach me to crimp Ethernet cables).
Does anyone else have this experience in the UK? Did I just grow up in a bad area for computer science?
(I believe shortly after I left school they did start having lessons in programming though- maybe I am part of a weirdly lost generation)
I was born ‘89 and in the midlands of the UK, so I missed these programmes (although my mother didn’t and even as a non-techy person could write BBC basic on a C64, which is where I got my interest).
But growing up there were quite literally no resources to learn anything about computers or programming. All courses in school were “computing” which was Microsoft excel and word courses; if you were really lucky it would be Microsoft access. They were specifically tailored for office work, not understanding computers.
As I aged, I found courses on networking (specifically Cisco) in college, however they all closed the year before I could take them.
I did manage to take a college course but I had to commute 4.5hrs a day for 2 years to take it, which was quite demanding. And I was in the last group who could ever take that course. (It closed the year after I started, I was literally the last group in). And there the only thing they taught me programming related was Visual Basic. (Although they did teach me to crimp Ethernet cables).
Does anyone else have this experience in the UK? Did I just grow up in a bad area for computer science?
(I believe shortly after I left school they did start having lessons in programming though- maybe I am part of a weirdly lost generation)