Pioneering IT guru reflects on 25 years of computer teaching

Itec pioneered mass computer training in south Essex. Now it is in the happy position where its graduates are company directors, and sending their own staff to be trained at the centre, in Burnt Mills Road.

Malcolm retires in February, aged 59. Working in such a fast-changing industry hasn’t left much time for Malcolm to reflect on the past. Now he is finally in a position to slow down a bit and take stock of what has been achieved and what Itec can look forward to achieving in years to come.

Malcolm and Itec have come a long way since he set up the Basildon centre in 1983. “At the time, there was a real feeling we were pioneers, ” he says.

It was still a world where computing meant IBM mainframes, and the average person thought PC meant police constable.

Information technology had always been dominated by professional programmers. “I remember the way they used to look down their noses,” says Malcolm. “IBM was said to stand for I’m Bloody Marvelous. They certainly didn’t take PCs seriously at first.”

ITEC’s mainstay equipment when it started was a now forgotten name in computing, the BBC Model B brand. “Companies were just starting to acquire their first PCs, but they cost £4,000 to £5,000 each,” recalls Malcolm. “That was a big outlay.”

However, the value of PCs was also becoming apparent. “If you asked a programmer to do a job, they’d say, ‘yes, OK, that will take a couple of months’. With a modern PC, you just press a button.”

Cost apart, there was one other major hurdle to overcome if PCs were to become commonplace – fear. Children and teenagers were becoming confident with the new techno era, thanks to machines like the Commodore 64. But most older people still lacked confidence.

“There was a lot of fear around,” says Malcolm. “Partly that was because of the feeling you could easily break something and do a lot of damage if you didn’t know exactly what you were doing.”

Nevertheless, government and industry were starting to grasp that a working knowledge of IT would need to be part of everybody’s basic education and workplace skillset.

“It was realised this was the shape of the future and it was vital to get onboard,’ Malcolm says. The Basildon Itec was one of a generation of IT education centres which opened around Britain in 1983-84, stimulated by the then education minister, Ken Baker.

For Malcolm, the timing almost had a smack of destiny about it. He had just been made redundant from his previous job. “I left on a Friday and walked into the new job on the Monday,” he says.

Malcolm had spent 17 years since leaving school with Standard Telephone and ITT. Starting as an apprentice himself, he ended by running the apprentice programme. “But the company then decided to move manufacturing overseas,” he says. That was when he saw the advertisement for an executive to set up Itec in town.

What qualifications did you need in 1983 to set up a school designed to make the south Essex workforce PC savvy?

The job description had never existed before. But Malcolm was widely qualified as a trainer, an electronics specialist and someone who understood the power and potential of IT.

He also had a string of letters after his name. “I didn’t stop studying until I was 33,” he says. “I had an HNC in data processing and a diploma in management studies, among other things.”

Itec might have been dealing with cutting edge technology, but the early months of its life were conducted on a very low-tech basis, as the staff prepared their premises in the old Nevendon Road primary school buildings. “At the start, we didn’t even have proper chairs,” recalls Malcolm. “The staff were using deckchairs from my garden.”

Now, 25 years on, there is hardly a functioning business in Essex that doesn’t make some use of the technology Itec and Malcolm pioneered. Hundreds of Itec trained personnel now tap confidently at keyboards.

Itec’s original role, of course, has dwindled. There are people running IT departments who weren’t even born when Itec began. The basis of its 1983 training programme is now routinely taught in school, and is second nature to a generation who know their way arou-nd a PC before they are out of nappies.

Yet Malcolm firmly believes Itec will still be around in 25 years time.

Like IT itself, its role has evolved fast. It now runs a major programme for systems technicians. Its apprenticeship schemes are being extended to older groups. Its next target is accreditation to run foundation degree courses in association with universities.

Malcolm has operated in a computer dominated environment for 25 years, and became expert enough to become a delegate to Pitcom, the parliamentary group responsible for the IT training industry.

But he himself is no nerd. He has always seen his prime role as preparing his students for the workplace. “That means emphasising the human and personal qualities, as well as technical skills,” he says. “We used to joke you never saw an IT person, you just slid a plate of food under the door, and they slid the plate back again, empty. But that won’t work any more. They have to know how to present themselves and their work, and communicate with colleagues.”

He also stresses the limitations, as well as the strengths, of modern technology, especially as a communication tool. “E-mails do not express emotion,” he points out. “I know many cases where they have given offense or caused an adverse reaction simply because you can’t gauge the response to them. Direct human contact is still superior in many cases.”

In retirement, Malcolm will be practicing a considerable amount of communication. He plans to spend more time lending his bass voice to the Leigh Orpheus Choir.

There will, of course, still be a PC at the Bridges home in Benfleet, but he doesn’t claim to use it in any pioneering or sophisticated way. “Like most people, its mostly about e-mails and staying in touch with the family,” he says. “That’s what it’s really about, communication.”