Impact Report 2023/24: A message from our CEO

Reflecting on an inspiring year

I can’t believe it’s already been a full academic year since I returned from maternity leave, and, wow, what a year it has been. As always, our Showcase was a real highlight, and, this year, I had the opportunity to interview some of our student teams straight after they had pitched their app ideas to our judges. Their energy, confidence, and insights into their skills and interest in technology are exactly what a CEO wants to hear!

Celebrating achievements and championing women in tech

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of joining an incredible panel of girls and women to celebrate Girls in ICT Day. It was inspiring to hear their stories and their commitment to promoting greater diversity in digital careers. Just this week I’m honoured to have been announced as one of ComputerWeekly.com's 50 Most Influential Women in UK Technology, which is a testament to the commitment of the entire Apps for Good family, from the team and Board to our volunteers, partners, and teachers. Also flying the flag for women in tech is our Senior Fundraising Manager, Georgie, who was awarded a much-deserved WeAreTheCity Rising Stars Award. Plus, our App for Social Action course was shortlisted for a 2024 Teach Award.

Alongside my CEO role, I’ve volunteered as a Governor for a local secondary school for the last three years. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to add value to the school, but I often leave those meetings with my eyes wide open to the daily challenges that our schools and teachers face.

Progress in education reform: a new hope?

Last year I reported on a gloomy bigger picture, however, some progress has been made with the potential for more change. In a promising development, the government has announced a review of the national curriculum, with recommendations expected to be published in 2025. This review aims to “develop a cutting-edge curriculum, equipping children and young people with the essential knowledge and skills” that will “break down barriers to opportunity, give every child the best start in life (and) support their future life and work.” This is something we’ve championed here at Apps for Good for many years. We know that, despite these positive prospects, a strong need will remain for us to continue supporting teachers by addressing ongoing challenges including the shortage of specialist teachers, teacher workload pressures, and budget constraints.

Tackling the challenges in computing education

Back in August in partnership with TeacherTapp, we asked teachers to “Think of your school’s computing curriculum. What are the top three challenges for your school?” The 1,323 responses that we received from secondary teachers told us that their top three challenges are: shortage of specialist computer science teachers (cited by 58% of respondents), curriculum time (41%), and teacher confidence (31%). How can we expect our students to receive the computing education they deserve if we’re unable to put a qualified and confident teacher in front of them? Anecdotal evidence suggests that many schools are simply dropping the delivery of the computing curriculum as they have nobody confident enough or not enough time in the curriculum to deliver it. This is one of the reasons we’ve developed ready-made introductory computing courses that are short and flexible, offering a zero-cost solution for both computing and non-specialist computing teachers. The course materials and support from our team ensure that anyone with teaching experience can deliver them whether that’s as part of their curriculum or as an extra-curricular or enrichment activity.

The insights from Teacher Tapp are challenging to read, but they strengthen our resolve to create a world where every young person has the skills to shape their future. Capgemini’s 2023 report, ‘Future-ready education: Empowering secondary school students with digital skills,’ emphasises the vital role of digital skills in all professions and the importance of teaching these skills to prevent students from being disadvantaged both in their careers and in society. The report states, “As technology transforms every aspect of our lives and the world is rapidly shaped by artificial intelligence, students who are digital-, data-, and media-literate will have a significant advantage over their peers.”

In light of this, it’s worrying that, according to the Pearson Schools Report 2024, 60% of educators believe that “today’s education system does not set pupils up with the skills needed to thrive,” and a mere 7% believe that there is “enough digital emphasis to prepare learners for their futures.” These stark statistics highlight a critical gap in integrating digital literacy and technological proficiency into educational frameworks. As digital tools and technologies become increasingly integral to both personal and professional environments, the lack of focus on these areas within the curriculum could leave current students at a disadvantage in a competitive, tech-driven world.

Continuing to expand our reach

I’m proud to say that, despite the ongoing challenges in the wider education sector, the 2023/24 academic year has been another year of growth for Apps for Good, seeing our courses reach over 30,000 young people from schools across the United Kingdom. We’ve also seen young people around the world take part in our courses, with our delivery partner CDI Portugal reaching 182 schools and 3764 young people across Portugal.

144 schools delivered our Innovate for Climate Change course, a 58% increase from the previous academic year, and 101 schools delivered our App for Social Action course in its very first year. We also conducted a small pilot of our new AI for Good course which is now live for the 2024/25 academic year, and already gaining popularity.

Measuring our impact

As we continue to grow, we're witnessing a remarkable impact on the young people at the heart of our work. This year we’ve collected even more qualitative and quantitative data from students, with 81% of survey respondents reporting an improvement in their computer programming skills, and 93% reporting developing more than one essential skill after taking part in an Apps for Good course.

In the 2023/24 academic year, thanks to support from the Hg Foundation, we have invested in our approach to impact management, ensuring our processes and data are robust. We’ve hired a Senior Impact Manager who is already adding huge value and we are working on an independent evaluation of the App for Social Action course with the Institute of Employment Studies to discover what impact our courses have on students' subject choices. We’re expecting to learn a lot along the way and it may result in some changes to the way we report our impact in the future. We are proud to be open and transparent about our impact journey, so stay tuned to hear how we continue to learn and evolve.

Thanking our community and looking ahead

The Apps for Good team has had a busy summer of planning and preparing for the 2024/25 academic year. I'm excited to see what we can achieve together as we put these plans into action.

As I write this, the team is preparing for our first face-to-face event in five years to celebrate the contribution of our volunteers and partners - without whom, we would not be able to offer our courses free of charge to our schools and teachers, which is fundamental to our mission. So a special thank you to, Hg Foundation, OVO Foundation, BNY, Google, Garfield Weston, Spectris Foundation, PA Foundation, Spotify, SAP, Sage, EPAM, Google DeepMind, Northern Consortium, and Balanced Impact.

And a final thank you to our volunteers and teachers who make Apps for Good course delivery possible, and continue to inspire our students every day.