[LINK] Australia has ‘skipped a generation’ of software engineering education

[David]

On 2021-11-30 09:03, Tom Worthington wrote:
> This [Silicon Valley’s Holberton School...] is an appealing model. I help with ANU's Techaluncher program, where computing students have to work in a team on a project for a real client. The emphasis is on people and project skills. For any extra technical skills the students need, they are pointed to short online courses.

The TechLauncher website implies there are few or no prerequisites:

QUOTE
Get involved
TechLauncher is an inclusive program open to people across the university and the broader community.
o	students - be involved in a project, deliver a seminar for your peers
o	industry, government and community - propose or mentor a project, deliver a seminar
o	staff at ANU - propose or mentor a project, deliver a seminar
UNQUOTE

IMO student project-groups need close supervision by tutors in order to avoid architectural & implementation mistakes which can bring an entire real-world project to its knees, ruin reputations, and waste money on an epic scale.  People and project skills are not enough.  Here are some examples:

o	Inability to recognise & negotiate a poor RFT which goes into a lot of low-level technical detail but doesn't clearly state what the project stakeholders think they're buying.  A lack of legal training is another, related pitfall.

o	Use of inappropriate development environments or web applications which are proprietary, insecure, contain undeclared data collectors, are too resource intensive, or are unnecessarily expensive in development time or money.

o	Inability to properly evaluate claimed technical expertise and monitor performance.

> On 2021-11-30 10:26, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> As I read the article, there are no prerequisites. It's for all comers. There may be minimum standards, like reading and writing, though. Let's hope.

Don't count on it, Jan!

Clear English expression was one of the marking areas at UTS.  If a project group complained, they were told to find someone in their group with good English skills who could write (or at least edit) their submissions.  It's part of the job.

David Lochrin