Pupils from north-east schools are having to attend college in the hopes of achieving higher grades in computing courses.
The Press and Journal can reveal that 35 pupils from academies across the region are attending North East Scotland College because of a lack of trained teachers in schools.
At a council meeting last week, head teachers from Mearns, Mackie and Portlethen schools all said that recruiting people to fill computing science posts was “difficult”, with students from Mackie having to travel into Aberdeen to take part in the higher course.
They are joined by pupils from Harlaw, Hazlehead and Northfield at the campus, while 13 pupils from Ellon Academy are offered the college course at the town’s community learning centre.
Those numbers are expected to increase to 50 by next year, when North East Scotland College (Nescol) begins rolling out its National 5 level course in the subject.
Aberdeenshire Council, however, does not have any computing teaching vacancies.
And last night, Cameron Walker, head of computing at Nescol, said the lure of “big money” jobs may be driving teachers away from the profession.
“The downturn in the number of computing teachers has been going on for quite some time and may be because graduates are being lured into industry where computing skills are in demand and attract high salaries,” he said.
The higher course at Nescol was offered for the first time this year.
A spokeswoman for the college explained that it was set up as a means of coping with the shortage of trained staff in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.
“Given the high demand for computing skills across Scotland, offering higher computing science at college was designed to help address this,” she added.