Re: More programmers?
>Given that large proporations of many software projects are now hived off to programmers in off-shore sites, in places such as India or China, where is the incentive to train up new expensive programmers here in the UK.
Exactly. The whole premise is idiotic.
What's needed isn't Moar Programming - which China is already far better at than the UK is, with India trailing along close behind - but a realistic attempt to get started on the next wave of innovation.
NostalgiaTech is not the answer. Biotech, space engineering, and all kinds of other things are far more likely to make a useful difference.
What the Pisters seem to have forgotten is that back in the 80s, it wasn't a composite video output or BBC Basic that created a new generation of entrepreneurs, but the fact that having an affordable home micro *was* the innovation, because it was only available in the UK and Europe.
The US had an established hacker culture, but the machines all cost $$$$$. The UK made the new technology so affordable almost anyone could have it.
The Pi is not the modern equivalent, because most people have something that kicks the Pi's arse in their pockets. And some of them know how to write apps for it.
So it's a nice toy for Makers. But it's not the saviour of the next generation.
What would save the next generation would be a crash program of combined business development and applied science at secondary and undergrad level. Instead of dicking around with single-subject GCSEs and As, combine a group of subjects, including art, music, design, basic physics+chem+bio, and programming/technology, with business start-up skills.
Unfortunately you can't buy a single doodad for all of that. But that doesn't mean it couldn't be possible with some imagination...
And that's the problem, isn't it? The UK's educational system hates imagination. You can be trained to be a corporate spare part, and if daddy and mummy are rich enough you can qualify as a Hoxtonpreneur.
But if you're some working class oik - who do you think you are trying to create a start-up?
Good heavens - what would the world come to if the soiled toiling masses forgot their place and starting trying to run things for their own benefit. clear and loan-free?
So - not invented here. Literally.
It's a criminal and lunatic waste of talent. But there it is.