A programme has been developed for a single-board computer aimed at getting more youngsters in London’s East End into internet technology and science.

The Raspberry Pi project was launched at the Whitechapel Centre last week by Tower Hamlets Council with the Chartered Institute of IT, to develop pupils’ coding skills in computing and to promote awareness of careers in IT.

The project is also set up to award internships for bright sparks.

The top three students get paid internships with Workshare IT company in partnership with the local authority to meet the educational and social challenges in the area.

Lessons on the Raspberry Pi computer have been developed with Manchester University and the Resonate recruitment enterprise to be taught over five weeks by youth workers and staff from Workshare, a company in Spitalfields which provides secure file-sharing applications.

The project is designed to meet the need to improve youngsters’ skills in science, technology, engineering and maths, to help plug the gap in the skills shortage in the tech industry.

Raspberry Pi aims to provide pupils with a better view of the world of technology and what future path they could take, working for a tech-based international company like Workshare.

Students enter a competition at the end of the programme to develop their own application, which will be presented to a panel of industry judges.

One-in-five jobs are unfilled in Britain because of the skills shortage in industries including IT and computing, according to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills.