Are we entering into a new era of cooperation between employers and educators?

Anyone  reading the media coverage of the latest CBI Education and Skills Survey would have felt a strong sense of déjà vu. The usual depressing story – school leavers lack the skills they need etc. etc. Interested in hearing the truth I went to the launch with some trepidation only to discover a classic ‘cup half empty’ story.

First of all my questions about what the definition of  a school leaver– a 16 year old with or without GCSEs, an 18 year old A Level leaver a university graduate all or some? – all remain unanswered. There is a real danger in generalisations of this kind which undermine the validity of any survey.  Nevertheless as I looked at the results it became abundantly clear that they actually confirmed a far more positive picture and a high level of consensus between employers and  school and college leaders. Here are some headlines:

68% of employers are satisfied with school and college leavers’ teamworking skills, 65% with their positive attitude to work, 64% with their basic numeracy skills, 59% with their basic literacy skills. Ironically one of the lowest  scores was 45% satisfaction with their self management skills. This includes punctuality – an irony which did not escape some of those present who were still waiting for the minister an hour after his scheduled slot. All of this demonstrates a great deal of good news, none of which was reported, yet we all recognise that we all need to work together to improve things further.

An interesting statistic was that 64% do not believe that the quality of careers advice is good enough  but a very encouraging 54% are willing to do more to support schools in delivering this. This is a great relief in the light of the continuing complete lack of progress in taking the promised All Age Advisory Service forward or even deciding what it will look like.

The DfE response was a highly predictable restatement of its commitment to the English Baccalaureate and increasing emphasis on GCSE English and Maths. This missed the point entirely as the speakers representing major employers highlighted the key issues:

Employability skills should be embedded in the national curriculum and certainly not ignored. Functional skills in literacy and numeracy should be taught and assessed – GCSE is not necessarily the answer. Problem solving skills are the least developed and need to be a priority. None of these should be taught separately – they should be integral to the teaching of all subjects. We need to continue to emphasise stem subjects. All of this sounded to me like a resounding endorsement of the kind of priorities ASCL has highlighted in making the case for a better baccalaureate

Most encouragingly employers said that they do not want to stand on the sidelines and complain. Some apt quotations from a report written in 1899 bemoaning the way young people are equipped for the world of commerce reminded the audience that this is not exactly a new problem. The need to redefine what we mean by employability skills has never been greater. ASCL is engaged in a constructive dialogue with CBI about these skills and I know from firsthand experience working with the Education Employer Taskforce that some sterling work is going on there too.

Although I was unable to wait for the minister I left feeling a lot less depressed than teachers and school leaders will have felt when reading the morning papers.