Surveys of skills and vacancies consistently show that the core characteristics employers are looking for, and not finding, include motivation and flexibility, willingness to work and learn, confidence, appearance and good manners. For example, a 2005 survey for Scottish Enterprise of 20,000 employers revealed that what they most lacked from new recruits was oral communication skills, customer handling, problem solving and team working. In contrast, written communication, literacy skills and using numbers, although important, came bottom of the list in terms of priorities, the opposite of governments’ priorities.
“Although the whole schooling and further education system is oriented to qualifications, these are less important to employers and most often used to screen applicants than to make hiring decisions”, says Mulgan. “The mismatch between the skills young people are receiving and the demands of the market is visible in many fields. It can be seen in every hotel or restaurant in London, Glasgow or Birmingham where the jobs are filled by Estonians, Australians and Poles rather than unemployed locals, who employers see as ill-suited to service work. It can be seen in the many statistics which show that key government policies have had little impact on levels of worklessness and on the numbers of young people not in education, employment or training (the NEETs). And it can be seen in the often appalling levels of service provided by many private companies as well as many public services.”
Mulgan argues that the debates about our education system are overly concerned with structures, with insufficient attention given to extra-curricular activities, sports and project work – the activities that help to develop interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence.
“The debate over the Education White Paper symbolises the problem – it has been concerned exclusively with structures rather than addressing what young people most need, despite very strong evidence that tens of thousands of people are leaving schooling each year unprepared for the labour market, and without the mix of inner discipline and outer engagement that most modern jobs demand,” he says.
He advocates new types of school that are much more directly focused on experience of working with others and the creation of a “virtual service campus” to provide courses for managers, professionals and front line staff. Arguing that standards of service both in the private sector and public sector are still woefully low, he argues that the same emphasis that has been put on leadership education should now be devoted to learning the attention to detail and humility that lies behind really good service.
Geoff Mulgan was speaking at the third New Year Lecture of the Learning and Skills Development Agency, held at The Berkley in London.
In September 2004, Mulgan became director of the Young Foundation, which in previous incarnations under Michael Young, initiated dozens of new organisations and initiatives including the Open University and Which?, patient-led healthcare and schools for social entrepreneurs. Between 1997 and 2004 he held various roles in the UK government including director of the Government’s Strategy Unit and head of policy in the Prime Minister’s office. Before that he was the founder and director of the think-tank Demos, described by the Economist as the UK’s most influential think-tank; chief adviser to Gordon Brown MP; a consultant and lecturer in telecommunications; and an investment executive. He began his career in local government in London. He has been a reporter for BBC TV and radio and a columnist for national newspapers including the Guardian and the Independent.
Geoff is a World Economic Forum Global Leader of Tomorrow, and was ranked in 2004 as one of the UK’s 100 leading public intellectuals. He has lectured in over 30 countries. He is also a visiting professor at the London School of Economics, University College London and Melbourne University at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government. His most recent book is Connexity: how to live in a connected world (Harvard Business Press and Jonathan Cape, 1998). Previous books include: Saturday night or Sunday morning (Comedia, 1987); Communication and control: networks and the new economies of communication (Blackwells, 1991); Politics in an antipolitical age (Polity, 1994); Life after politics (Harper Collins, 1997). He has two books coming out in 2006: Good and bad power (Penguin) and The art of public strategy (Oxford University Press). Geoff is profiled in two recent books – The new alchemists by Charles Handy (Hutchinson, 1999) and Visionaries by Jay Walljasper (Utne Books, USA, 2001).
Quelle: Publictechnology, 08.02.2006
