Turbulent Times: Skills for a Global World is a new report from OCR and Think Global. You can find it on TG's website. Their blurb says:
"Focusing on the views and understandings of employers, who can play a crucial role in supporting young people to learn and practise skills for a global world, we surveyed 500 business leaders from across the country and across sectors to build an up-to-date picture of whether or to what extent our young people are prepared to thrive both today and in the future. While some of the findings are not altogether surprising (such as the fact that despite numerous interventions, important skills gaps persist; and that more needs to be done specifically to prepare young people for a global world); others were more troubling. Most particularly, the report shows clearly that many employers themselves are out of touch with both the real global context in which their industries operate, and their own global role and responsibilities in preparing young people for international reality."
Here are the recommendations:
Employers need to understand the multiple purposes of the education system, and take their own share of responsibility for improving the work-preparedness of young people. They need to be more connected with young people, and work should be done to better understand mismatches between employer and young peoples’ expectation of work purpose and requirements. Employer bodies and associations should work actively to make employers aware of (and understand the relevance of) important global trends and developments.
Core skills remain vital; but curricula and careers advice must also include employability/soft skills. Schools should be more demanding of employers; and regulatory and qualifications bodies should highlight the importance of global skills and competencies in standards frameworks.
Government should be the facilitator for ensuring all stakeholders are engaged in the education and skills system rather than the determiner of requirements. The focus of activity should be on how to ensure efficient and effective partnership working is developed and maintained. To future-proof the education and training system, global and long-term perspectives must be adopted into curricula; and official projections for employment and skills in the UK (for example, from the ONS) should include specific consideration of global trends over the same periods studied in each projection.
Underwhelming, or what? As for "future-proof the education and training system", I really did hope for better ...
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