It seems that although the country may be awash with graduates looking for jobs, too many of them just do not have what employers really want, with almost a third of businesses falling short of their recruitment targets last year.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph , education editor Graeme Paton bases his story on a report from the Association for Graduate Recruiters.
He says companies complained that graduate skill levels did not meet their requirements. Some said that the quality of applicants was ‘not always good enough’ and others did not have the time or money to re-train students who joined lacking key skills.
But how and why has this situation developed? I hesitate to use the hackneyed phrase ‘dumbing down’, but is it because GCSE and A level examinations have become easier, leading to more students gaining university places? Is it because some degree courses no longer stretch students in ways they once did? Is it because, despite having A levels and degree, too many graduates lack core literacy and numeracy skills?
I suspect that these are all part of the mix that has produced the current situation. Certainly I have encountered graduates whose standard of written English is poor. Their work demonstrates a lack of understanding of grammar, punctuation and spelling.
I have long felt that too much money goes into higher education at the expense of education at primary and senior school levels. Governments love to boast about how many people are in higher education, but fail to recognise that more investment is needed in the lower echelons of education.
Far too many young people are passing through the school system without learning to read and write properly, but successive governments do little to tackle the problem. There’s not much kudos for politicians in ensuring that kids can read, right and do basic maths at the age of 16 compared with increasing student numbers to record levels.
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