IT skills and employment

An article on the BBC caught my interest today, in which Will.i.am discusses how he is taking coding classes in order to learn more about the mysterious world of computing.  This is on the back of a research project by the Prince's Trust, which revealed that one in ten British youths are unable to fill in an online cv, while a quarter face the prospect of doing so with dread.  17% of the respondents stated that they simply did not apply for jobs that required even the most basic of computer skills.  What I do like from this is the response from the Prince's Trust - staff from the Science Museum will visit Prince's Trust clubs in schools to try to re-engage students who are at risk - or already are - underachieving.  Also catching my eye was a comment from Valerie Thompson of the E-learning Foundation, who noted that the pupil premium funds could be utilized in order to give disadvantaged student increased access to computers.  The incredible thing here is that this generation of youths are the ones who teachers tend to dub as the 'wired' generation, with an intuitive feel for technology.  Clearly this is not the case.  Clearly we are back in the territory of the digital divide.  And clearly we need to do something about this.