School leavers given 'de-text' lessons to speak the language business needs; Social media 'deprives teenagers of basi... - 2 views
started by Tracy Tan on 29 Feb 12
started by Tracy Tan on 29 Feb 12
/ HGSET545/ School leavers given 'de-text' lessons to speak the language business needs; Social media 'deprives teenagers of basic skills' (Billy Kenber, The Times [UK], 23/2)
started by Tracy Tan on 29 Feb 12
Social networking has created an underclass of prospective employees who lack basic skills needed to join the workforce, the head of Britain's largest recruitment company has warned.
Peter Searle, 49, Adecco's UK chief executive, said that employers were struggling to fill vacancies because school leavers were unable to work in a team, turn up on time or communicate with colleagues. The education system was failing to equip people with the skills that businesses want, he said.
"We have instances in offices where people would rather sit at their desk and send e-mails to each other [sitting] next door than walk around and have a conversation," he said in an interview with The Times.
"They have no respect for their manager. They don't ask them for advice because it isn't their social background to do that. All the things that we think of as normal, they aren't prepared for."
He says that heavy use of Twitter and Facebook could be isolating because relationships with others were all through a machine.
"They only know how to interact with short 'text speak' to save themselves time, so they start using text speak in conversations," he said. As a result, some businesses have had to send new employees on training courses to "de-text" their speech.
"They come out of school and want to get a job, but the people who are interviewing them are saying [their] personal social skills [and their] technical abilities are not suited to the way things work in industry."
For the past year, Adecco has been running Unlocking Britain's Potential, a project that seeks to identify ways of creating a more skilled workforce, which Mr Searle believes is crucial for the UK's long-term economic growth.
In a report, the project argues that businesses must foster closer links with schools to address unemployment, which has reached a near-record 22 per cent among those aged 16 to 24.
"We have a generation of people who are sitting at home who are fundamentally bored [and] who need something to motivate them," Mr Searle said.
He floated the idea of more teachers being seconded to businesses and for an "employment experience" programme to be developed to give pupils a taste of what to expect from their working lives. The recession had thrown the skills gap between what the education system is providing, and what businesses want, into sharp focus, he said.
"The market has changed fundamentally," he said. "Previously, there was still a need to take people because the demand was so high, so our clients - businesses - were absorbing people who might have been of lower skill and then spending the money to fill those people in.
"Now the market is saying: 'Actually, I need you to be running tomorrow because I'm going to go bust otherwise.' There are no large environments, even [in] engineering, where you can just hang up your brain as you go inside and go through the day and get paid for it."
Adecco and other recruitment firms have a responsibility to help the workforce adapt to the needs of the UK economy, he said. "We can't just be a company which puts people into jobs; we have to be a company that actually plays a part in changing the labour environment."