Current knowledge levels

Many, perhaps most, developed nation companies are brainwork companies nowadays i.e. at least 33% of their employees have degrees or equivalent

Clearly, all top jobs require best brains/ problem solvers – there’s little routine work for them – it’s their ideas, decisions, tactics and plans, actions and people skills that are needed most

But the same logic now applies to the majority of workforces – most jobs require more brain than brawnpower – in addition, they increasingly require an interaction with and use of ICT systems for them to do their jobs well

This means perhaps less than 20% of all jobs require mostly brawnpower – simple instructions must be followed – little knowledge/ skills/ experience and so training or experience is needed

Hence, some 80% of any developed nation’s workforce relies on brainpower and considerable training to do their jobs well

But training in what?

At present all UK kids are forced to go to primary and then secondary schools to learn the same range of basic subjects up to age 15:

  • Many then leave either to earn a living or attend some apprenticeship course – the former usually find employment opportunities and pay levels for the unskilled are meagre, the latter are (currently) limited in choice and made to feel second-rate versus any degree course
  • Most that stay on to their sixth form have to choose between studying arts or sciences, but not both
  • And most that go on to university have to further specialise, their choice of subjects usually made on the basis of what they like and/ or are ‘good at’
  • Throughout this whole process, ‘careers advisers’ might get involved but, in my experience, their inputs are either useless or worse
  • Nor do the kids get any significant nudges from either government or industry when choosing what to study

The end result is UK kids emerge into the world of work having cost a fortune being educated, whatever the level, but not knowing much of what they need to know

Is it any wonder businesses forever complain of a mismatch between skills available to them and those they need?

And that’s not the only problem nowadays – whilst many UK universities are ranked among the best in the world, there has been a huge expansion in their total number – this has led to a dilution of degree standards which is infecting the whole tertiary system viz:

  • Given students are universities’ customers, many choose where to apply (if not a top university) partly based on the likelihood of being marked well – hence most universities now award first or 2.1 degrees to well over 50% of their customers
  • Many lowly-ranked UK universities are struggling to attract sufficient numbers of students – aka income – to cover their costs and so are lowering their entry standards, even greatly increasing unconditional offers to poorly performing applicants, which has obvious knock-on effects later on

The inevitable result is that many employers are now strongly biassed towards graduates from the ‘top ten’ or Russell Group universities – hence a first from a tin-pot university may only lead to a life of shelf stacking

A major sieving of the long tail of UK universities is thus needed, and soon, before too many kids rack up too much student loan debt and have their dreams shattered

What’s needed is a raft of technical apprentice colleges, but call them something grand to stop people looking down on them – as per MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) offering courses up to Bachelor and Master degree level in skills not only business but the general public desperately need i.e. not only engineers and computer scientists but electricians and plumbers:

  • A start has indeed been made with many more apprenticeships on offer
  • However, in most people’s opinion, the very word ‘apprenticeship’ downgrades the value of current courses on offer versus any degree
  • And take-up of these courses has also been disappointing to date

Worst of all, there’s still no clear steerage or incentives from business or government for kids to obtain the skills the nation most needs

And the above ‘training gaps’ only relate to kids at the start of their careers – delve into the training most companies offer their employees after their start and the picture is equally pitiful:

  • Some have formalised induction programmes – most are superficial at best
  • Many view training as a few days junket at the expense of the firm, and no use to anyone afterwards
  • The more senior you are, in the West, the less the training on offer despite the rapid changes ongoing these days

Yet most staff at all levels are usually keen to upskill themselves – and they look to their employers to help them do this – however, many companies don’t recognise that employee training should be good for them too by helping their employees be more productive

Overall, companies should thus take note of surveys that show those with formalised training and workshops have at least twice the income per employee compared to the rest – they also enjoy big increases in productivity and sales whilst reducing stress and attrition

CONCLUSION

At present, there are training pot-holes all over the national road to increased productivity and prosperity – and there seems to be no concerted effort by those in power towards filling them in properly

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