Sustainable and Adaptive Growth in Computing Education

Computing Education faces significant challenges in equipping graduates with the resilience necessary to remain relevant amid rapid technological change. While existing curricula cultivate computing competencies, they often fail to integrate strategies for sustaining and adapting these skills, leading to reduced career resilience and recurrent industry layoffs. The lack of educational emphasis on sustainability and adaptability amid industry changes perpetuates a vicious cycle: As industries shift, skill fragmentation and decay lead to displacement, which in turn causes further skill degradation. The ongoing deficiency in adaptability and sustainability among learners is reflected in the frequent and intense shifts across the industry. This issue is particularly evident in domains marked by high technological volatility such as computer graphics and game development, where computing concepts, including computational thinking and performance optimization, are uniquely and continuously challenged. To foster sustainable and adaptive growth, this paper introduces, a new framework which addresses the question: How can computing education and professional development be connected to in these volatile sectors? It integrates two iterative, interconnected cycles, an educational and a professional, by linking education with profession to establish a lifelong, renewable practice. This approach allows computing professionals to excel and maintain relevance amid constant changes across their industry.