Service industries want drones that can drive their web apps made offshore; so the primary skills they demand are keyboard, mouse, word processing and maybe a spreadsheet or little databasing. GCSE-level basic office stuff - fine, everyone needs that. Basic compsci/programming? That's little more than a bit of fun, if it's your definition of fun. It was for me, and I didn't need no stinking school to teach it. Typing in programs from the ZX Spectrum+ user manual...
Kids aren't dumb (mostly); and IT-specific jobs in the UK are relatively poorly paid unless you get to the top. In which case, the most useful skills are in sales and marketing, not CompSci. Not like the good old days when an Oracle "consultant" could cobble together any old database for 100k/year. Those days aren't coming back, thanks to offshore competition taking over that work; unless companies wake up to the terrible deal they are dealt over and over with the hidden ongoing costs that hiring one of the usual consultancies incurs.
So why would you pick a course that's relatively hard and has little to zero prospects without doing a higher level course. Ultimately, your time is probably more valuable learning maths and science with a later view to specialising in CompSci if that's your thing at KS4+. You don't need CompSci GSCE to move to A-level or a degree.
I made the mistake of doing far too many GCSEs (13!) the result of which was dilution and disinterest. Fewer, but well taught general skills leading to specialisations at high levels is what I'd recommend to anyone today. No reasons that a Maths course shouldn't contain simple programming for example.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
