Shocking: Only four girls take A-level Computing in Northern Ireland

PC Pro reports that the number of students taking A-level computing has fallen to such low levels that only four girls took the subject in the whole of Northern Ireland this year. To add to this, only 52 students took the course.

These figures are not only alarming for a nation that has a million 16-25 year olds out of work, but is the continuation of a trend that has seen the number of British computing graduates decline by two-thirds over the past decade.

Looking at the whole of the UK, only 0.4% of the students sat A-level’s in computing. A mere 3,809 students took up the course in contrast to 4,002 last year. Out of which only 297 were girls.

The IT skills and gender gap issues have been in the news for far too long now, and with the decline in A-level computing students, businesses need to work with the Government, colleges and universities to educate and support each other to resolve this issue.  It’s time for all to act now otherwise we’ll become a nation that not only imports goods, but imports talent too.

@nahidur

Olympics inspire 150 million conversations on Twitter-verse

Twitter revealed that last night’s Olympic closing ceremony saw more Tweets per minute (TPM) than Usain Bolt’s 200m final win – which received over 80,000 TPM. However, the Spice Girls stole the show, inspiring more than 116,000 TPM during their performance last night.

Word associated with the ‘Olympics’ during Games on Twitter via @sysomos

Over the past 16 day period, Twitter saw 150+ million Tweets about the Olympics. Here are the biggest moments of competition:

• Usain Bolt (@UsainBolt) of Jamaica wins gold in the 200m sprint: 80,000+ TPM
• Bolt wins gold in the 100m sprint: 74,000+ TPM
• Andy Murray (@andy_murray) of Great Britain wins gold in the men’s tennis singles: 57,000+ TPM
• Jamaica wins gold and sets the world record in the men’s 4×100 relay: 52,000+ TPM
• Team USA beats Spain to win gold in men’s basketball: 41,000+ TPM

The most-discussed British athlete throughout the Games was diver Tom Daley, who went on to claim bronze in the 10 metre final. Here is a list of the other most discussed athletes during the games:

1. Usain Bolt (@UsainBolt)
2. Michael Phelps (@MichaelPhelps)
3. Tom Daley (@TomDaley1994)
4. Ryan Lochte (@ryanlochte)
5. Gabby Douglas (@gabrielledoug)
6. Andy Murray (@andy_murray)
7. Kobe Bryant (#GetKobeOnTwitter)
8. Yohan Blake (@YohanBlake)
9. Lee Chong Wei (@Lee_C_Wei)
10. LeBron James (@KingJames)

The Olympic Games have been incredible, especially for someone like me who lives a stone’s throw away from the Olympic park; I’m already feeling the post-Olympics blues. Twitter definitely played an important role in keeping people up-to-date, engaged and entertained. But with the Paralympics starting in a fortnight, it will be interesting to see if it receives the same rapturous reception as the Olympics, or even reach similar peaks in TPM’s on Twitter-verse.

Regardless, I’m looking forward to it – Let the games commence!

@nahidur