Is teaching our kids to code the smart way to ensure national prosperity beyond the mining boom? Queensland business woman, serial entrepreneur and Australia’s answer to Marissa Mayer, Yvette Adams, says it is.”There is already a massive skills shortage globally when it comes to developers/programmers and it is only going to get worse,” Adams says. “Code is the language of the future, and should be taught in preference to subjects such as algebra and calculus.”
After returning from a busy fortnight in Silicon Valley in May where she visited 11 companies, including Facebook, LinkedIn, IBM and EventBrite she saw first-hand the insatiable demand for what the Americans call program engineers, but which Australians refer to as developers or coders.
“If you want to encourage your child into a profession that they are guaranteed to get well paid work in, head them into technology,” she says. “It is also the industry that will move Australia forward post the mining boom, so we might as well start them early.”
Adams made these remarks last night after being named the ICT Woman of the Year at the technology sector’s annual iAwards in Melbourne. The founder and owner of The Creative Collective, a creative services and training agency, and a new online start up, awardshub.com was honoured for her consistent and distinguished contribution to the ICT industry.
Having started five businesses from scratch, the first of which she launched when she was just 17, Adams was recognised as an inspiring force in the world of technology. She has consulted with and trained thousands of businesses in New Zealand, the UK and Australia on their online strategies.
Through The Creative Collective Adams assists business professionals get up to speed with new technologies and has assisted thousands of people through a range of services and training programs.
“There is no point in fighting technology or ignoring it. It’s not going away, and the sooner you embrace it, the better off you, your business, and your family will be,” she says.
Earlier this year Adams told Women’s Agenda that she can’t understand why more women aren’t experimenting with new business ideas that involve technology. “Mining won’t support this country forever,” she says. “If we can get smarter and get more people creating technology, we’ll be that much more sustainable.”