Employers “have a key role in teaching job skills”

Citation

(2005), "Employers “have a key role in teaching job skills”", Education + Training, Vol. 47 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2005.00447gab.003

Employers “have a key role in teaching job skills”

A survey of 20-30 year olds shows the importance of the employer when it comes to learning the right skills for the job. The poll, commissioned by Ofsted, shows that young people believe employers have a strong part to play in developing the skills they need to do their job and believe that their education equipped them well in basic literacy skills but not well enough in areas such as problem solving.

Ofsted commissioned independent researchers to interview more than 500 working people between 20 and 30 years old to obtain their views on how well education prepared them for working life. The interviewees were from a variety of industries, with 55 per cent of respondents holding professional qualifications that related to their work. Two thirds of those polled felt more could have been done to prepare them for the world of work, with 23 per cent suggesting they would have benefited from more work experience and 8 per cent believing that more vocational training would have been useful. While around 80 per cent of those polled felt that their education provided them with good numeracy and literacy skills, nearly 50 per cent thought their education did not put enough emphasis on attention to detail, meeting deadlines and team working.

Ofsted’s director of corporate services, Robert Green, said: “Businesses need employees with a ‘can-do’ attitude, a willingness to take on responsibility, a creative and innovative approach to solving problems and the ability to cope with uncertainty. The question is, how do we ensure young people develop these skills? We commissioned this poll because this area is of huge importance for those in education and the business world. We decided to focus on the views of 20-30 year olds because we wanted to hear from those at the sharp end. It is no secret that employers and educationalists have had, at best, a piecemeal relationship in the past. Current Government thinking aims to rectify this.”

The poll findings tie in with the launch of two new publications, Work-Related Learning: the Story so Far and Increased Flexibility Programme at Key Stage 4. The former publication provides an overview of Ofsted’s recent work in evaluating the success of Government initiatives aimed at making learning more relevant to the economy, encouraging work-related learning and building links between the education community and businesses.

The latter publication evaluates the first two years of the programme. It suggests that courses offered through partnerships with business have proved so popular that the numbers of students taking part have exceeded expectations. Four out of five students are gaining vocational qualifications as a direct result of their participation in the increased-flexibility programmes and more students are staying on after 16. However, relationships between educational institutions and businesses have taken time to develop and there are real problems with the quality of the curriculum in work-based training organizations. These issues need to be addressed if proposals for greater collaboration are to make vocational qualifications available to a wider range of students.

Ofsted’s poll also found that only 38 per cent of respondents believe education alone should prepare young people for working life, suggesting that employers have a key role in developing the skills required for industry. Many of those interviewed felt education prepared them better for their general working life than their first job. Those who stayed in education until they were at least 22 were much more positive about being prepared for work. Many 16 and 17 year olds were less confident about starting work.

Employers fare well when it comes to filling in knowledge gaps, with 80 per cent of respondents saying they felt their employer provided strong support in furnishing skills specific to their working environment. Half of respondents said they attended training provided by their employer and 44 per cent had on-the-job training. Some 55 per cent of those polled said they had taken active steps themselves, through self-teaching, to address any gaps in knowledge, while 75 per cent of respondents believe employers are best placed to develop skills such as teamwork and most believe written communication and numeracy are best developed while at school or college (79 per cent and 82 per cent, respectively).