By Andy McCue, 20 August 2007 12:41
NEWS
School-leavers might be tech-savvy but they are increasingly entering the workplace without basic numerical and literacy skills, employers have warned.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and Pertemps Employment Trends Survey found 92 per cent of employers are happy with the IT skills of GCSE students.
The CBI puts this down to the familiarity of "generation text" with web and mobile-based technologies and a 47 per cent increase in the number of pupils sitting the ICT GCSE over the last decade to 110,000 last year.
Richard Lambert, CBI director-general, said in the report: "Their fluency with iPods, mobiles and MySpace has translated well into the workplace, and often gives them an edge over their bosses. The greater focus on IT in schools and investment in computers is also helping."
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But the report found school-leavers increasingly lack basic abilities in English and maths. More than half (52 per cent) of the employers questioned in the survey said they are dissatisfied with the basic literacy of school-leavers and half said the same about numerical skills.
Just 47 per cent of pupils sitting GCSE English and maths last year achieved a grade C or above and employers warn this often leaves teenagers unable to function in the workplace because they can't do simple calculations in their heads or speak in an articulate manner.
Lambert said: "Maths and English skills are a vital bedrock for further learning and are essential both in the workplace and in life... We simply cannot match the labour costs of India, China, and other emerging economies, and only a higher-skilled workforce will keep the UK competitive."
Almost three-quarters (71 per cent) of employers also said school-leavers lack basic business awareness.
The survey, which will be published fully in September, questioned 507 employers across all industry sectors.
Comments
There are 10 comments. Join the discussion
1. Roger Huffadine
Luk nowe ferthur than thee Nashnul curikyoulum.
2. Nick Morgan
Employers have been complaining about school leavers lacking basic skills for years. Whilst basic numeracy and literacy should be expected why on earth would employers expect school leavers to have basic business schools. The fundamental basis of education has been and should remain the teaching of fundamental skills and also teaching pupils how to learn so they can easily acquire new skills in the work place. Schools are not a factory for providing employers with ready made employees. Employers used to expect to take raw recruits from school as trainees and spend one or more years training them at their own expense. This was best exemplified by the apprenticeship system. For some reason the CBI now expect schools to prepare pupils as "workplace ready" resources they can pick up, use, and no doubt discard when no longer required. Employers need to get back to the old idea of expecting to have to spend their time and money training school leavers for the specific requirements of their business.
3. Anthony Hunt
Having just spent a month and a half trying to recruit a replacement for a member of staff who is emigrating, I can say the biggest problem in IT is the proliferation of "Web Monkeys", people who claim vast IT expertise with shining CV's (all works of fiction - 18 years .Net experience???), but in reality have been using the "build new website" wizard, or modifying other peoples templates. Trying to find a Windows Forms developer has proved to be a nightmare.
We set two simple programming tests; one was "Fill an array with the even numbers up to 100, using any language". Fifteen candidates, two didn't turn up and eleven couldn't write anything recognisably a program, only two candidates wrote something that would actually work. Test two was a VB code section with a Do..Until loop on a recordset, missing the ".MoveNext" - only three candidates spotted it, most couldn't identify the language.
All these people were supplied by the agencies as “senior developers”. I weep for the IT industry!
We did try one junior, who on evaluation had at least the same skills as the so-called experts, however he also told me with great authority that VB was a dead language and all Microsoft's new development tools were rubbish, not to mention he had salary expectations of 35-40K and aspirations to be MD within three years. Not very likely for a junior developer of limited skills working in a small company in Kent.
I’ve never thought of myself as anything more than a “good” programmer, but based on what I have seen in the last month, it would appear I am a god amongst developers if the barrel-scrapings we’ve seen are anything to go by about the state of the skills currently available in the IT job market.
Youngsters may be "tech savvy" but sending text messages doesn't come into most job descriptions and having a MySpace page or Facebook entry won't qualify you as a web designer either. Since schools have, for a generation, been turning out children who can barely speak English (unless they want to be an extra in EastEnders), can’t spell, add up, or have a work ethic (clubbing mid-week?), but think because they have their attendance vouchers (sometimes called A levels) they think they are genius’ that are entitled to fame and fortune with little or no effort.
We are now limited to recruiting over 30’s to find anyone who is presentable, can be understood on a phone and will turn up sober and on time each day. We have recruited three times in five years and each time the average age of the company has gone up as a result.
Yes, we would take on a junior without experience and train them, but they would be paid accordingly (not 35K+ with company car as some school leavers seem to think). We were recruiting to replace an experienced developer and found very slim pickings.
The current school system is a poor joke. Children come from school where failure is a taboo subject, criticism is forbidden and exam results assure them they are the 25th consecutive smartest generation, it’s no wonder they hit the real world with a bump. Schools no longer place any importance on speaking clearly or correctly. There are no races at school sports day, that’s “too competitive” and at my son’s nativity they were singing in Urdu and Arabic, but they don’t know their times tables yet. What the hell has gone wrong with the schools? It needs fixing and a backward step (to what we had) is the only forward step, because the changes made by the “politically correct” crowd thus far have NOT been an improvement.
4. Jerome Pearce
Anthony Hunt, you are spot on. I'm not a conservative by nature, but the education system has gone to ____.
5. Radical Meldrew
In a recent BBC programme two presenters took a present GCSE maths exam and got 57% + 24% success ratings. The biggest shock is that 57% was interpreted as an A grade pass and a mere 24% was a C grade pass! The standard of the actual exam may not have diminished but the pass criteria have certainly been tinkered with! Is it any wonder that we have so many inept 'experts' in abundance today; all of whom seem to rely instinctively on their egos alone to keep them afloat in their perceived state of elevated status.
6. Karl Eade
An incredibly articulate and accurate statement on todays society. Youngsters leave school with a belief that they know everything and that the older generations knows nothing nor deserves respect. Whilst in the 'Real World' the complete opposite is true. A step backwards to a previous education system is indeed the only way forward.
7. Rob Kenefeck
I find the comments here slightly disappointing. I left college with an A leval in Computing and took it to University where I am currently turning it into a Computer Science degree. However, during the summer break, i have been unable to find ANY computer related roles. I am not an expert we developer, but can do more than use the "create new page" button. I am not an expert programmer, but feel I would have done far better at the questions Andy mentioned. If these companies want half decent people who arent expecting a 35-40k + company car wage, employ university students on a time share basis, wotrking from home - you'l get far more quality for your money, and the generations working their way up will get much needed experience. Thats miles better than school leavers or silver surfers surely?
8. EBGB
Oh, please tell me that the last comment was a spoof? Otherwise it demonstrates perfectly the comments of everyone before...
"A leval"
"you'l get"
"Thats "
All utterly *utterly* basic errors that should be beneath the average primary school leaver, let alone undergraduate.
Is it any wonder that Anthony's company's average age has risen through recruitement of literate adults?
9. EBGB
Oh, and best of all, I only just realised the true meaning of "we developer". That's a web developer, I assume? Let's see if we can spell the following words correctly too, and then award a Computer Science A level to the first 18 year old who can spot them without the use of the apparently essential spell checker.
Th ca sa on he ma.
Terrifying.
Alternatively, if a spoof, hilarious.
10. EBGB
Even if I do now have to sit in the corner in shame at my spelling of recruitment. Sorry about that.