Young people are getting left behind while Britain recovers, here's how to get them ready for work

By NORA SENIOR

Updated: 07:40 EST, 22 July 2013

'Get business people into school': Nora Senior is president of the British Chambers of Commerce

During the past three years, British companies have defied the odds by hiring far more workers than the anaemic GDP growth figures would suggest.

However the proportion of young people aged between 16 and 24 in employment has barely budged. Why is it that our young people are being left behind while Britain gets back to work, and who is to blame?

Businesses I speak to want to work with young people and are happy to train and employ them. But they are often disheartened and frustrated to find school leavers and graduates do not have the skills they need to join the workforce.

Their poor literacy, numeracy, behaviour and attitudes do not meet business expectations. The OECD recently warned that youth unemployment was the UK’s biggest challenge and I agree.

Schools, local councils, and the Government must do more, working with businesses, to radically change the way we get our young people ready for work. The Government must stop shutting business out of the education system.

In England, it has removed the duty on schools to provide young people with work experience and has replaced the ‘Connexions’ face-to-face careers advice with information that is only available online. This is because the Education Secretary believes that head teachers know what is best for their pupils.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the real world of work, the truism is that head teachers don’t always know best and some continue to prioritise time and money on boosting performance in exam league tables.

Michael Gove must accept that it takes more than three good A-level grades to prosper, and both he and Ofsted should be judging schools on students’ employability skills rather than exam results alone.

But we can’t just leave it to teachers to instill enterprise in their pupils, especially as so many lack business experience. For that reason, local schools should welcome business people with open arms.

Businesses shouldn’t have to convince head teachers that spending time in the classroom is a good thing for pupils.

Careers education: Getting business people into schools to provide an insight into the world of work is the way to get pupils excited, says Nora Senior

Students must understand what opportunities are available to them and learn about the private sector which is, after all, the source of 90 per cent of new jobs.

Young people cannot match their talents and interests to a career without understanding the full range of jobs available to them – those where their skills will be in demand and best rewarded, and the qualifications required to gain those jobs.

Careers education should be added to the national curriculum to help advise and educate these young people as they make the choices that will shape their lives – that means talking about the world of work before they make subject choices, not after they have been made.

We must also put a stop to the constant tinkering around the edges by successive governments to a qualifications system that baffles teachers and employers. O-Levels, GCEs, GCSEs, A-Levels, A2 Levels, SATS, Baccalaureates – is it really any wonder that we are being left adrift?

As President of the British Chambers of Commerce, breaking down barriers between business and young people will be one of my top priorities. There is no silver-bullet solution to the youth employment challenge, yet there are some simple things that can be done now to help educate our young people about business.

First though, the Government must stop fixating on academics alone, and ensure that soft workplace skills are taught in our schools, or young people will continue to be left out in the cold.

Getting business people into schools to provide a real world insight into the world of work is the way to get pupils excited.

Once you instill a passion for enterprise in our young people, the sky is well and truly the limit. And we may just avoid nurturing a future generation of young people who think that being a ‘celebrity’ is a career!