[AussieCoder]

I agree, curiosity and passion are something you either have or you don't. As an industry we need to improve our capabilities and continuously demonstrate our value and a subset who are lacking or have outdated skills risks influencing the perception of the value of the whole.

That said, if we can't make people want to be interested we need to find another way to reach them.

Some industries require formal certification and demonstration of ongoing professional development, but IT generally doesn't (although there are pockets which do). Some of the best developers I have worked with have had no formal training, however, just passion, curiosity and a willingness to put in the hours to learn and excluding them would be a mistake. So how do we do it?