Selection of college students taking A-level computing rose in 2021

Numbers of both male and female college students sitting A-Stage computing exams rose in 2021, despite the incontrovertible fact that there could be soundless a prolonged methodology to tear to succor extra ladies into tech

Clare McDonald

Clare McDonald,
Enterprise Editor

Published: 10 Aug 2021 17: 30

This twelve months seen the assortment of both male and female college students taking A-level computing in the UK originate larger when when put next with 2020.

In 2021, 13,829 college students in the UK in entire took computing at A-level, an originate larger from 12,428 entrants the earlier twelve months.

However the topic is soundless extra standard with boys than with ladies – easiest 2,031 females took the computing A-level in the summer of 2021, when put next with 11,798 boys.

This has been an ongoing pattern over the previous few years. The assortment of female computing college students elevated to 1,797 in 2020, up from 1,475 in 2019, and 1,211 in 2018.

While there bask in been twelve months-on-twelve months (YoY) increases in the assortment of ladies (and boys) selecting to eliminate the topic, the assortment of ladies taking computing in 2021 – moreover as other science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM)-essentially essentially based subjects such as maths, extra maths and physics – is noticeably decrease than the assortment of boys.

Nataniel Okenwa, developer evangelist at Twilio, said: “Although there’s been an originate larger in females taking computing A-level and achieving top grades this twelve months when put next with 2020, there’s soundless some methodology to tear to derive to a extra even footing.

“The provisional AS-level outcomes suggest that there’s if truth be told been a descend in female entrants for this twelve months, which is a setback. Colleges and businesses wish to be severe about systems to derive ladies severe about STEM subjects, since it’s in all people’s ardour to bask in a extra balanced and diverse group.”

In the case of other STEM subjects, mathematics seen extra boys than ladies eliminate the topic this twelve months, and the similar goes for exams in extra maths sat in the UK in 2021.

Science subjects narrate a somewhat varied legend, with boys significantly outnumbering ladies in physics A-level, nonetheless extra ladies than boys opting to eliminate chemistry and biology.

There turn out to be once an ongoing fight to succor extra young females to eliminate STEM subjects and to retain in tips computing careers.

While BCS prognosis of A-level computing over the previous five years has found a 350% originate larger in the assortment of ladies taking the topic since 2015, the figures clearly soundless disclose a important hole between the assortment of boys and ladies taking the topic.

There are quite a bit of causes young females steer a ways from STEM subjects, including stereotypes surrounding the categories of folks that tear into STEM or the abilities wanted for STEM roles, and a lack of characteristic models in STEM positions.

Julia Adamson, director of education at BCS, hopes the unhurried originate larger in ladies taking computing A-level and enrolling in pc science levels could moreover merely signal an originate larger in diverse workforces in the spoil.

“We’re specifically gay to glimpse rising numbers of female college students selecting to behold computing at A-level and as a degree, and hope this would possibly moreover merely lead to an an increasing selection of diverse group in tech industries,” she said.

No matter decrease numbers, ladies once extra outperformed boys in computing, with the next percentage of ladies receiving higher grades than boys.

For ladies, 25.7% of folks that entered the computing exam executed an Aresult, an originate larger from 17.8% final twelve months; whereas easiest 18.9% of boys executed an Alevel grade, an originate larger from 13.1% final twelve months.

Extra ladies than boys also executed A and B grades in the topic – 52.6% of female candidates executed a minimum of an A grade, versus 43.1% of boys; and 76.1% of ladies executed a minimum of a B grade when put next with 67.3% of boys.

Total, 44.5% of computing college students executed a minimum of an A grade, 68.6% executed a minimum of a B grade, and 87.2% executed a minimum of a C grade – all increases on the earlier twelve months’s outcomes.

For the 2d twelve months in a row, exams in England had been cancelled and grades had been decided the use of a vary of alternative evaluate criteria, leaving many questioning if this has skewed outcomes upwards.

However the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), which publishes the outcomes every twelve months, claimed that college students bask in needed to reveal “outstanding resilience” all around the Covid-19 pandemic in narrate to manufacture their outcomes, and it is a ways also “complex to plan comparisons” to earlier twelve months’s outcomes as it is the vital time grades bask in been obvious this methodology.

Agata Nowakowska, dwelling vice-president of Europe, Heart East and Africa (EMEA) at Skillsoft, said: “With exams cancelled for a 2d twelve months operating, 18 months of lockdowns and homeschooling, and the day itself having been introduced ahead to enable time for varsity students to contest grades – A-level outcomes day positively looks to be somewhat of varied this twelve months.

“Alternatively, in the succor of the similar outdated backdrop of celebrations and commiserations, echoes the shared sentiment: ‘we made it via’.”

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