Is the current UK education system preparing children for the real world?

Does the education system prepare children properly for the world of work?

Transcript

00:00 So we asked 2,000 people with Public First about their views on the current education

00:05 system, what might need to change. What came out really strongly was actually less than

00:09 a quarter of adults think that the current education system in England prepares young

00:13 people well for the workplace. And what they were looking for to change that was really

00:17 a focus on developing young people's kind of broader skills. So things like team working,

00:22 problem solving, creativity that are going to be needed right across all industries.

00:27 At the moment, one of the most pressing issues facing England's education system is persistent

00:31 absence. It was reported that students missing more than 10% of sessions had increased from

00:38 13% to 24%. Furthermore, with 91% of children aged 11 now owning a smartphone, it begs the

00:45 question of how the education system reflects the changing times.

00:49 Yeah, so we asked people about the ABS, the Advanced British Standard. I think the thing

00:53 that people liked most about it was the idea that young people get to study a broader range

00:57 of subjects until the age of 18. So rather than having to specialize down to just kind

01:01 of three or two kind of post-16, the opportunity to blend technical and academic subjects and

01:06 kind of bring out different aspects of a young person's talents and interests. In terms of

01:10 the English and maths area that you asked about, I think we would generally support

01:14 that. But as long as the English and maths is kind of very focused on what young people

01:18 are going to actually need in the real world. So contextualized, linked to the rest of their

01:21 curriculum. If they're studying healthcare, they could be learning the same mathematical

01:25 concepts but through giving patients units of insulin or a temperature chart rather than

01:30 for the engineers, engine temperatures or those kind of things. So at GCSE level, students

01:36 are being kind of encouraged to take really kind of traditional subjects now. And we've

01:40 seen a real drop in things like design and technology and creative subjects. And at the

01:44 same time, employers are saying they want that kind of creativity. It's one of the top

01:46 skills they're looking for. So we would definitely encourage kind of breadth. I put a lot more

01:50 trust in head teachers and teachers and to use that kind of professional judgment and

01:54 give them a wider range of tools to teach. So not just kind of teaching from the front,