What can be done to improve IT in our schools....

One way which is often cited is to have ICT lessons include more aspects of technology which pupils use in real life, so they can see exactly where the skills they learn in schools would come in useful and what a wide range of potential interesting careers there are open to them.

One school doing just that is St Mathew Academy in Blackheath, South London, where pupils have been designing their own mobile phone apps, with the help of workers from real-life company Apps 4 Good.

Other suggestions from schools include blogging lessons and website building classes to show pupils the work which goes into using sites that they use and read daily.

However, it is not just IT specific jobs which pupils need educating about, it is also vital that schools highlight the role IT is increasingly playing in almost all careers, including teaching jobs, positions in the media and almost all office-based roles.

As a growing number of jobs depend on computing skills, today's children may struggle in the future if IT education is not improved.