ICT Woman of the Year says kids should be taught to code in schools

Queensland businesswoman and ICT Woman of the Year 2013, Yvette Adams, believes entrepreneurialism should be encouraged in schools and code should be taught in preference to subjects such as algebra and calculus.

Yvette Adams (pictured) was named ICT Woman of the Year last night, at the prestigious national 2013 iAwards in Melbourne. The iAwards is Australia’s premier technology awards program, recognising the contributions that Information and Communications Technology makes across all sectors of the economy.

Women are under-represented in the ICT industry, with the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showing women make up just over 24 per cent of the total workforce. The ICT Woman of the Year is awarded to a woman in ICT who has made a consistent and distinguished contribution to the industry in Australia.

Adams, who has started 5 businesses and sold two of them during her career, says “There is already a massive skills shortage globally when it comes to developers and programmers and it is only going to get worse.”

“If you want to encourage your child into a profession that they are guaranteed to get well paid work in, head them into technology. It is also the industry that will move Australia forward post the mining boom, so we might as well start them early.”

The mother of two, also said “for the first time in history, our kids know more than something about us – technology” and is concerned that more parents aren’t skilling up on technology so they can support their children.

She is currently writing a book ‘NO KIDDING: Why our kids know more about technology than us and what we can do about it’ to assist parents and teachers to better support the current generation of tech savvy kids.

Through her company The Creative Collective, Adams is assisting business professionals who are struggling to find work or run a business in the digital age, to get up to speed with new technologies.

“There is no point in fighting technology or ignoring it,” she said. “It’s not going away, and the sooner you embrace it, the better off you, your business, and your family will be.”