Although Canadian children seem to learn how to manipulate technology with ease before they even start to walk, fewer seem interested in the hows and whys of all their gadgets or developing any real know-how.
University enrolment in computer science and computer engineering has been in free fall since 2001, and it's time to drastically change almost everything about how we're teaching and recruiting people into these fields, says professor Jacob Slonim of Dalhousie University, who is working with executives from Canadian universities, governments and industries to tackle the issue.
"It's a major, major issue,'' says Slonim. "I don't want to say we are panicking, but we're definitely not comfortable with the position Canada is in.''
While youth have become much more computer literate, they're also showing much less interest in how computers actually work, says Paul Swinwood, president of the Ottawa-based Information and Communications Technology Council, a not-for-profit group dedicated to improving the sector's "quantity and quality.''
"They have no understanding of the concepts of the technologies behind (a computer), that make it do what they want to do,'' he says. "And so they have no appreciation for the jobs and careers that are out there making the computers work.''
While interest in the jobs seems to be going down, the number of tech jobs is shooting up. It is increasingly becoming hard to do almost anything -- work, play or otherwise -- that doesn't have a connection to technology.
A recent study by the ICTC projects a shortage of 100,000 skilled workers in all fields by 2009 and one million by 2016. The group says that a low unemployment rate in the technology fields mixed with a shortage of new grads and continued growth in the industry means it will be one of those in trouble.
A number of surveys and studies have cast a wide net of blame for all the empty seats in Canadian computer science classes.
Some have suggested that parents, scared off by layoffs at Nortel and other companies during the dot-com bust, encourage their children to avoid the field. Others blame a lack of elementary and high school teachers who specialize in computers and technology.
One definite problem is that computer science and technology remains one of the few areas dominated by men.
"We have only attracted a very small number of women to computer science for many years, and unfortunately, the number of men in universities is going down,'' says Slonim, adding that only about 10 per cent of students in these classes on average are women.
"As a result of that, you see a major drop in computer science as a whole.''
Slonim and others say several changes are underway or imminent that could help achieve a turnaround.
A proposed national study that targets students as early as Grade 6 could start next spring, testing when and how attitudes about these careers are formed. Multidisciplinary programs, like Dalhousie's bachelor of informatics, that show the real-world applications of technology are also becoming more popular.
"Usually, people see computers as an end to themselves,'' says Dalhousie associate professor Mike McAllister, adding that people picture themselves sitting in front of a computer writing code all day.
Instead, he says, computers are more and more used to achieve an end that has "a societal impact, a social impact, an actual application. That seems to attract more and more people.''
Dalhousie's informatics program combines medical and biology classes with computer classes to show the real-world applications of the technology. For instance, students learn how they can help facilitate the flow of patients through hospitals or interpret MRI data.
While the program is only in its second year, says McAllister, about 30 per cent of people enrolled are women, up from an average of about 13 per cent in the school's other computer science programs.
There's also a push to have tech jobs considered professional, lifelong career paths.
Starting in 2009, about 92 countries that have signed on to a UN initiative will form an international standards body to monitor the technology field in the same way that accountants, doctors and engineers have their professional associations, says Stephen Ibaraki, national president of the Canadian Information Processing Society.
"It's never occurred before,'' he said. "There's now this recognition that IT is ubiquitous everywhere.''
