
Rethinking Computer Science Education - upen
https://medium.com/@chancancode/rethinking-computer-science-education-319a60709b30#.bygn4cipz
======
dozzie
> Programmers and software engineers are in very high demand these days — we
> need a lot more of them, and we want them now. A Computer Science degree
> takes 3-4 years in most schools, which is way too long and costs too much.

We need more construction workers, but civil engineering degree takes too long
and costs too much. Do you see the stupidity of this sentence?

Once upon a time there was this concept of vocational schools. It was later
replaced with colleges and universities, which by their very nature are far
from industrial setting and thus can't teach what's necessary in the industry.

~~~
blueatlas
But we are not taking civil engineers and putting them in construction jobs.
We are, however, taking computer scientists and putting them in programming
roles. And there is high demand for those programmers, weather you want to
call them programmers, software engineers, computer scientists, or whatever.

Today, in most cases, a computer science degree doesn't translate into the
skills to be an effective programmer out of the chute, but that is where the
demand is.

~~~
dozzie
> We are, however, taking computer scientists and putting them in programming
> roles.

And how a computer scientist would make a decent programmer? He wasn't trained
in the craft, he was trained in different direction. He could just as easily
skip studying to get a degree and start training under an experienced
programmer.

> And there is high demand for those programmers

Yes. Note that the industry needs _programmers_ , not _scientists_ (or even
would-be scientists). Who the industry looks for and who it needs (judging
from jobs that are offered) is a mismatch, of course. This is what I called
the stupidity.

