Top 5 reasons why GCSE Computer Science is useful

Today, computers are as much a part of life as food or transport. I don’t make the comparison lightly - try asking your friend or child to live without a computer for a day (and, of course, I include mobile phones in this category)! However, the indispensability of technology alone doesn’t make the case for studying Computing Science at GCSE, or any, level. But here are our top 5 reasons to study GCSE Computer Science.

Computing is ubiquitous, in every field

It underpins almost every career choice. Computers are extensively used in almost every field to enable and enhance those fields: media and entertainment, medicine, fashion, politics, social work, veterinary science, logistics, you name it.

It will soon be normal for computers to drive our cars, and help doctors diagnose and treat our illnesses.

The average person reading this article comes in contact with over 70 computers on a typical day. It might sound unbelievable but there is more computing power in an average car today than the system that guided Apollo astronauts to the moon in 1969.

In school you study about the world around us, which is why we learn about photosynthesis and the solar system - not because we want to become botanists or astronomers. In the same vein, if computing is all around us, you must study computer science.

I am not saying that you do software engineering, but do the foundation course - the GCSE computer science.

Computing careers are highly lucrative

A career in computer science is one of the most lucrative today, and while the industry might see some blips and highs, it will remain highly desirable for years to come.

A computer science major is likely to earn 40% more than another college graduate. It would certainly be a sound financial decision to choose computing as a career.

Computer Science is empowering

It empowers you to solve problems. It’s the closest thing you have to a superpower, because given a problem, you feel like you can solve it.

One of my 13 year old students developed a book recommendation engine recently, only because she loves reading books and wanted to know what others are reading and build up her wish list in a more informed manner.

It is hard to explain in words her feeling - elation that started with quiet confidence before the project and ended with superhuman confidence to be able to tackle any problem.

If you start now at GCSE, play with computer science, experiment with coding, experience what it can do for you - maybe it will just fire your imagination and kick off a lifetime of innovation and creativity.

Make better decisions as a decision maker later in life

If you are a decision maker, whether as an NHS board member or a top boss in a retailer, it’s important you understand computer science. Why?

To help protect public interest while not stifling innovation and creativity. Let me explain using a real-life example.

A few years ago, the artificial intelligence software behind Google Photos incorrectly labelled two black people as gorillas.

Unfortunately, it went viral for the wrong reasons. There was a lot of anger around this mistake and some even labelled Google to be racist. Every major newspaper carried an article about how Google should apologise. (It did, just in case you were wondering.)

Such a reaction was misinformed and unfortunate. Very likely, it wasn’t a deliberate error.

It was unfortunate because it raised the wrong debate and drowned the more important debate around how Google (and other companies) “train” or build their algorithms. If the past data used to build their algorithms was pre-dominantly white, or not diverse enough in some other way, I can imagine such mistakes. The debate should have been around how to build and improve these algorithms.

If journalists, decision makers and policy makers have basic understanding of computer science works, they can conduct the right debate, ask the right questions and make better decisions - while encouraging innovation, progress and creativity.

You must decide what kind of a decision maker you want to be.

GCSE Computer Science can be a lot of fun

A big part of the curriculum is coding. It’s fun, but more importantly it enables you to create and as humans when we create, we feel a sense of happiness. There is a small dose of joy that you get whenever your code works and you create something. So, give computer science a chance.

Choose GCSE computer science.

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