An enterprising education

Source: Exec Digital UK

Date :08/04/2008 14:11:31

According to the Government, our basic skills aren’t up to scratch. Will forcing our youngsters to stay in education until 18 make any difference? Exec considers the potential impact of the legislation on UK business.

By Sam Wright

Professor Alison Wolf is confused. We are discussing the Education and Skills Bills (ESB), a piece of legislation put together by the Government to address the issues that arose from the Leitch review – a report which famously stated that only 600,000 unqualified people will hold jobs in 2020. What is puzzling her is the lack of outright opposition to the ESB, something which she describes as ‘a classic piece of bad policy making on the hoof.’

“It’s crazy,” she says. “The problem is not merely that it will criminalise young people but that it also threatens to criminalise employers.”

Diminished returns How could this be so? It seems that the Government’s primary solution to the problem of the country’s poor basic skills (estimates place the overall cost to the economy at £10 billion a year in lower incomes, reduced productivity and the costs of benefits and welfare services) is to raise the age of compulsory education or training to 18.

This means that, by 2015, the estimated half a million full time workers under the age of 18 will have to stay on for A-levels, vocational qualifications or, at the very least, a job that involves one day’s training every week. Those, both youngsters and employees, that don’t comply (more of which later) will be hit with a variety of penalties.

It is this that prompted Professor Wolf to write a paper called ‘Diminished Returns: How raising the leaving age to 18 will harm young people and the economy’ for the London-based think tank Policy Exchange.

It’s clearly a subject that’s close to her heart. Having left education to ‘work, travel and grow up’ before going to university and embarking on a career that has taken in roles for the UN, the US Government, the Institute of Education and, now, King’s College London, she’s a clear believer that leaving school early is not a handicap towards a successful career. Her main concern, however, is the effect that it could have on the economy.

For a start, there are doubts behind the validity of the Leitch review’s claims. As Diminished Returns says, the prediction that 600,000 unqualified people will hold jobs in 2020 does not work on the requirements of the job market at all. It is simply the number of people who, on current trends, will be in work without possessing a formal qualification.

Add to this questions over the accuracy of the figure of £2.4 billion in annual benefits (in 2016/7 prices) that the bill will bring to the economy and the lack of provision for the 10,000 self-employed under 18’s in the UK, and it becomes easy to understand Professor Wolf’s concern.

And, she says, small business is the most likely to suffer…

Click here to read the full article on the Education and Skills Bills