Technical boys and creative girls: the career aspirations of digitally skilled youths

Digital technology is increasingly central to our lives, particularly among young people. However, there remains a concern from government and businesses of a digital skills gap because many youths, especially girls, tend to be consumers rather than creators of technology. Drawing on 32 semi-structured interviews with digitally skilled teenagers (aged 13–19), this article investigates their digital career aspirations and examines how identities and discourses of gender can interact with the type of digital careers that are of interest to these youths. While it was found that digitally skilled young people still articulate traditional gendered discourses of digital competence, especially around technical abilities, the growing importance of creativity as a career pathway into digital technology is highlighted. Implications of the findings are discussed in relation to the new computing curriculum in England, which prioritises technical computing skills, and the discontinuation of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), which facilitates a broader usage of software and digital productivity.

"While digitally skilled youths have expressed educational and career aspirations in computing and information technology, we found that few girls are interested in technical-oriented computing, which continues to attract gendered discourses of computing as ‘for men’. By contrast, creative-oriented computing careers appeared popular for both girls and boys, which seem to attract few, if any, gender stereotypes. Indeed, many of our youths may have become digitally skilled as a result of their creative interest and determination, and may have mastered digital technologies and software in order to advance their digital creations. As such, a creative route into computing may be a more viable option for those less interested in technical computing, especially girls (Doubé & Lang, 2012). Yet, it would be dangerous to assume that a focus on creative computing would eradicate concerns of digital gender inequality. If girls are only encouraged to pursue computing-related careers that prioritise creativity, we are at risk of reproducing a gender digital divide within CIT, as currently seen in major technology companies (e.g. Google and Twitter). As such, we revisit the emphasis of the new computing curriculum in England on technical abilities as well as the importance of more generic digital and software skills, which were part of the soon-to-be discontinued subject, ICT." (Wong and Kemp, 2018: 310-11).