Duncan Murphy poses the question, “are young people of today appropriately prepared for the future?”

MTM Consulting was pleased once again to support this summer’s Future Fwd Conference hosted by Warwick Schools Foundation. In preparation for the event, we conducted a nationwide survey of business leaders, parents – and new for this year’s data – recent education leavers aged between 18 and 25 years. The cumulative panel consisted of families across the UK with a typical variance of household income to reflect aggregated norms.

While the summative objective was to determine how ready young people are for life beyond the education system, we also wanted to understand the role that employers and parents felt they played in the cultivation of attitudinal behaviour, as well as their expectation of what should be delivered by the national curriculum framework.

Our team of analysts carefully gauged the responses of the three stakeholders and compared them to yield significant patterns of agreement and discord, together with any meaningful digression from the patternation of previous surveys. A selection of interesting statistics is outlined below, together with an accompanying commentary on the emerging trends.

 Outcomes

• The biggest area of potential overlap between home, school and work in the perceived transactional structure of education arises in the ability of parents and businesses to support young people effectively in their interpretation of cultural awareness.
• Problem-solving is cited by all parties as one of the most significant facets of employability and while this is identified specifically as an area that schools could and should focus more readily upon, there is an apparent lack of wider understanding about the value that studying non-core subjects such as music and languages could add to this dimension of learning.
• Similarly, the propagation of good communication skills in young people is consensually agreed to be of high value for those leaving education and entering into the workplace. Yet participation in sports or other team-based co-curricular activities that schools might offer to deliver this ambition are given less credibility which points to the need for a much better understanding of the offer by the wider public.

• An ability to manage safe and skilful navigation of technology is unsurprisingly deemed to be an important factor by parents and businesses, while young people identify this skillset as one that schools could improve further in their teaching and learning.
• The concept of enthusiasm is rated as second only to problem-solving by businesses in terms of what they seek in their recruitment cycle; this is not reflected in the perception of young people as something that schools prepare them for hence there’s a pressing need for the coaching of attitude, motivation and interview technique to be placed within a suitable learning environment.
• Cultural fit is considered by young people to be an inadequate facet of school preparation for the real world; the need for a significant, added focus on the interpretation of British values and global citizenship to underpin academic learning, as well as their meaningful context for individuals irrespective of their background, is paramount.
• Approximately half of parents and businesses believe that young people are prepared for the world of work in overall terms with a similar balance articulating a concern that the gap is growing between the needs of the workplace against what is being delivered by the education system.
• Young people want the education system to better reflect life skills such as financial literacy and digital mastery in addition to traditional academics.
• While there is seemingly less emphasis placed on the relevance of subjects studied by young people and the level of attainment achieved during their education, it is increasingly evident that genuine, vocational experience is garnering a much greater appreciation by employers.

Summary

The research was undertaken to discern the readiness of young people for life in the world of work; predicated upon the results, it is evident that a disconnect remains between parental opinion and the needs of employers set against the actual aspirations of young people and a general misconception of the education system at large.

Parents, employers and young people alike recognise the importance of communication and life skills, as well as problem-solving, for future success yet there’s a lack of understanding about how non-core, specialist subjects within the school curriculum can effectively harness these factors and deliver similar outcomes.

Young people are largely motivated by taking ownership of their future career in an autonomous manner, either by starting their own business or working more flexibly, with financial gain listed as a major contributary reason for their choice of career.

Authentic experience in the workplace together with the demonstration of soft skills, including resilience, is deemed more valuable by businesses in their recruitment of new employees than academic attainment, choice of subject or name of awarding institution.

Apprenticeships, work experience and interview practice should play a much more significant role in the education system and while both families and local employers currently feel isolated from the process, they are willing to give up time to share their knowledge and experience in support of a vocational evolution within schools and universities.

We hope that these salient points will transcend the political debate and spark a meaningful dialogue to procure tangible outcomes that will satisfy the aspirations of young people, service the needs of employers and enable a closer working relationship between home and school.

Duncan Murphy is director of education and strategy at MTM Consulting

Duncan Murphy