Financial watchdog chief asks Gordon Brown for pound;56m to create a more enterprising, business-minded breed of school-leaver. Nicholas Pyke reports.
BRITISH school-leavers are being ill-prepared for jobs in a fast-changing economy, according to Howard Davies, head of the Financial Services Authority.
In a report on school-business links, the chief ofBritain’s financial sector watchdog said pupils needed “enterprise education”. He warned that without it Britain would continue to lag behind America in its ability to create jobs.
He said: “Businesses say they want more enterprising people to take more command over their own lives and their own careers. We are in a position where schools don’t know what they want and businesses don’t know what they have got.
“What we have done so far has given people basic familiarity with business. We have generated more positive attitudes but still not generated confidence.”
Most British schools, he said, are still geared up for the economy of the past, when work meant a job for life and a carriage clock at 65.
His long-awaited report was commissioned by Chancellor Gordon Brown, who wants schools and teachers to “communicate the virtues and potential of business”.
Titled Enterprise and the economy in education, it was launched at Downing Street last week. It suggests there is some distance to go despite two decades of business and vocational schemes.
Mr Davies, formerly deputy-governor of the Bank of England and director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, said that less than a third of young people take part in school-business links.
While 95 per cent of pupils were given some work experience, this is largely unstructured, he added.
Now he is asking the Chancellor to part with pound;56 million to fund meaningful work experience and the sort of school-based business venture run by the Young Enterprise and Business Dynamics charities.
Mr Davies makes clear the success or failure of his scheme depends on getting the cash: “Although the noises from the Chancellor were encouraging, people will be wanting to see if that’s backed up by a cheque.”
Business, he said, needed to put in an extra pound;30m, allowing every child to get at least five days of enterprise education. Children as young as eight could help run school-based companies.
Last summer, research from The TES and the National Association of Head Teachers concluded that business links have little or no impact on pupil motivation or academic standards.
Mr Davies said that research by MORI suggests there is no “anti-enterprise” culture among young people. He also implied that schools were not to blame for the lack of enterprising young people. If schools and businesses had not been giving students the confidence and the know-how they need to work in business, that was because no one had asked them to do so.
