A petition has been set up recently to lobby the Government into discussing whether or not Financial Education should become compulsory in schools. We are in favour of this change to the curriculum.

 

Whilst there are seemingly endless schemes now available to coax employers into taking on young people, it seems nobody has actually considered what skills employers need young people to have.

 

In fact when we look at the qualifications on offer in schools, it seems that students can study whatever subject takes their fancy and gives them and the school the best chance of maintaining their pass rates, rather than core subjects which offer transportable skills.

 

We employ a number of school leavers and graduates, so we speak with experience in terms of the types of individuals we look for. We are an advocate for training people from scratch and giving them the skills they need, but recruitment is becoming tougher.

 

Financial education in schools is becoming essential, as there seems to be a clueless streak prevalent today which means often we interview candidates with no concept of the world around them or how to survive in it. This isn’t just about industry specific knowledge, it’s about how to open and manage bank accounts, how to budget for costs so that pay isn’t wasted in the fast food outlet buying lunches for the first week in every month whilst then wondering why starvation hits for the rest of the month.

 

As I say, we are big believers in the skills of young people, but they are not being harnessed in the right way in mainstream education and as such, employers are faced with something of a lottery as to whether or not they can teach these missing skills.

 

We invest in our people, but many firms don’t, either because they don’t have the time or the means, but how many potential careers are going to waste, because students struggle to string a coherent sentence together or cannot answer a straight question with a straight answer, because they have spent their formative years being coached into what to answer rather than being allowed to think for themselves and learn independently.

 

This is not an attempt to disparage, because ability, eagerness and enthusiasm is out there, we find it regularly, but it is an increasing struggle. Until our education system stops creating robots and starts teaching students how to learn and what to appreciate in the world around them, we as employers will continue to spend the first six months of every new recruits employment, teaching them how to behave as well rounded individuals in a professional environment, as well as supporting them in the long standing careers they ultimately crave. That is quite a responsibility or is it just a symptom of the Big Society?