Whose job is it to prepare the next generation for work? Photograph: Jose Luis Pelaez, Inc/Getty Images
New diplomas for school students are ready to be rolled out this September and promise to deliver better prepared young people for work. The first schools and colleges will offer courses in subjects from construction to health and development.
To pass the diplomas students will need to demonstrate functional skills in English, maths and ICT as well as personal skills such as the ability to communicate and to work in teams.The idea is that young people will enter the workforce with more relevant skills and an understanding of work.
Companies have been complaining for years about the difficulties they face with the low levels of basic competencies in young employees. Two-and-a-half years ago, the CBI published a report stating that many organisations were forced to give teenagers remedial lessons in numeracy and literacy to get them to an acceptable level.
But will diplomas alone make a difference or should we be looking for other ways to equip young people for their first jobs?
In my view, industry has to be far more responsible for making sure the future workforce has the required levels of skills and experience necessary. Companies have a duty to provide their younger workers with real opportunity for training and continued learning.
Teachers too have a role to play - a responsibility for making the connection between what is happening in the classroom and what will happen at work explicit. At the moment anything beyond the school gates is often all but forgotten with schools operating in splendid isolation.
What do you think - how can we make a better job of preparing our young people in their future careers and will the new diplomas really make a difference?
