smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

The Forum of Private Business (FPB) has welcomed government plans to improve how IT is taught in UK schools to better prepare young people for work.

Michael Gove this week announced plans to invigorate the way the subject is taught across England and Wales, describing the current teaching as ‘harmful' and ‘dull'. The drive is to increase take-up of the subject by capturing pupils' interest earlier in their school career.

The FPB says its own member research shows employers are keen for education providers to teach youngsters the right skills demanded in the workplace, and has applauded the government's intervention as a step in the right direction.

Forum chief executive Phil Orford says, ‘Our research has shown that there is a gap between what businesses need and what businesses get when it comes to education standards.

‘Small businesses are desperate for employees with the right skills, and this seems a significant step to achieving that aim by helping improve the calibre of school leavers in a key area.’

Orford continues that if the private sector is to drive and grow the economy in the future, well-educated ‘innovators and entrepreneurs’, who can deliver in key growth areas such as IT, are needed.

Research in one of the Forum's quarterly ballots of members has identified serious dissatisfaction with training and skills among employers.

The research shows just 4 per cent of small firms rated the skills of their local workforce as ‘good', 56 per cent average, and 41 per cent as poor.

In all, 65 per cent of respondents felt that a greater focus on employment skills would make it more likely that they would take on young people.

Orford adds, ‘Few small firms seem to place much faith in the ability of schools and colleges to properly prepare people for the workplace. Consequently, most of them doubt they can easily recruit people with the skills and abilities they are looking for among the local workforce.

‘If Britain is going to move towards a knowledge-based, high-tech economy as the government has suggested previously, we need to see more specific tailoring of the education system for the needs of industry.’

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