Touch Typing in Schools
What is the simplest way of increasing the speed at which pupils and students learn?
The answer is simple: pupils and students who can touch type are able to process and work with information much more quickly than those who cannot.
The touch typist can work while looking at the screen or a book (rather than the keyboard) and basically can focus on the work in hand, rather than the mechanics of typing.
What’s more, typing up summaries of information (which involves reprocessing the information) is a very positive activity in educational terms. But it only works effectively with touch typists, as those who cannot touch type will be spending all their mental energies on the actual process of typing.
Once learned, the skill of touch typing never goes away, and that means that the student will take this skill onto higher education and/or into work, where it is always valued.
Whether one is aiming to be an academic, a reporter, a salesperson, a council employee or an engineer, an ability to type at speed is obviously beneficial, especially today when so many of us have to use a computer.
And there’s one more benefit… Within the next couple of years the use of computers in exams will become common. Those students who can touch type will have a huge advantage over those who cannot.
So why doesn’t every school teach touch typing?
At one time the view was that the only people who needed to learn to type were secretaries and typing-pool staff, and so touch typing became a skill taught in secretarial classes.
But these days most companies have done away with their secretarial staff, requiring all employees to be able to type their own documents. In short, in many jobs everyone is a typist. If you can’t type, you can’t do the job.
However the old idea has lingered on, so while some schools do teach touch typing, most still don’t.
The benefits to the student in the world of work
Employers are well aware that the average handwriting speed is 15 words per minute while touch typists are normally able to reach 40 – 50 wpm with a much higher level of accuracy and readability.
Put another way, a person who works at a PC for say 20 hours a week could save 10 hours a week. This means increases in productivity which has a positive impact on the bottom line.
There’s another benefit which both employers and employees become very aware of. Touch typists adopt better posture at the PC. They tend to sit up straight and look at the screen instead of sitting hunched over the keyboard. Therefore they are less likely to get Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI) which means less time off sick, reduced stress levels, the avoidance of employees making injury claims against their employer, and lower levels of sick pay paid out by the employer.
In other words employers are very actively looking for touch typists.
