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Is The Teaching Profession so Black & White?
| “ I thought I was a good teacher and could not understand what was happening ” |
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British Students Shunned
Various governments have floated apprenticeship scheme ambitions as an alternative route into work, beginning with then-chancellor Kenneth Clarke in 1993, David Cameron’s 2015 pledge to create three million apprentices by 2020 and the 2017 introduction of an apprenticeship levy, which has led to a rise of around nine per cent in take-ups. It’s significantly less than the 35 per cent jump in university applicants, however, and also sees far higher dropout figures; a report by education thinktank EDSK last year found that some 47 per cent of apprentices quit before having finished their course, with 70 per cent citing concerns over quality as their reason for giving up.
Sonal Keay assumed that her first hire would be a graduate – but those who applied to her skincare company “lacked zeal and ambition,” she found. Having attended university (and undertaken an apprenticeship, for a barrister) herself, she instead employed a “wonderful” young 19-year-old whose only work experience was with other small business owners.
“It was one of the best decisions I ever made,” Keay, 43, says, citing her employee’s attitude, work ethic and desire to learn as “astounding”. The experience also changed her hiring mindset: “I look at apprentices differently. I see a young person who has decided not to go to university as someone who has assessed their own character, assessed their own finances and decided to take a risk… and most of all, someone who wants, more than anything, to invest in obtaining practical skills for their working life.”
Sonal Keay assumed that her first hire would be a graduate – but those who applied to her skincare company “lacked zeal and ambition,” she found. Having attended university (and undertaken an apprenticeship, for a barrister) herself, she instead employed a “wonderful” young 19-year-old whose only work experience was with other small business owners.
“It was one of the best decisions I ever made,” Keay, 43, says, citing her employee’s attitude, work ethic and desire to learn as “astounding”. The experience also changed her hiring mindset: “I look at apprentices differently. I see a young person who has decided not to go to university as someone who has assessed their own character, assessed their own finances and decided to take a risk… and most of all, someone who wants, more than anything, to invest in obtaining practical skills for their working life.”
Sonal Keay’s hiring mindset has changed
© Provided by The Telegraph
© Provided by The Telegraph
This kind of “pragmatic and lateral thinking” easily beats the “con” of current university courses, Keay adds. She believes that too many have been “brainwashed into thinking that a university degree is a ‘passport’ to the traditional trappings of middle class life” – but that encouraging young people to pursue formal education “for the sake of it may actually psychologically disadvantage a child”.
She has also become aware that having a degree can “engender attitudes of both indebtedness and entitlement at the same time” among staff.
She has also become aware that having a degree can “engender attitudes of both indebtedness and entitlement at the same time” among staff.
The only graduate she has hired to This is Silk is also the one she fired “because he felt (and stated) he was ‘above’ the other employees because they were apprentices and mothers who had not gone to university…. [he] had a terrible idea that he was superior simply because he had gone to university and this began to show in his work.”
Keay points out that this graduate doesn’t represent all of those who enter employment, and that some careers, such as medicine or law, necessitate formal training. But she thinks that the vast cost of getting a degree now – which leaves the average student in £45,600 of debt – is having a fundamental impact on how new staffers see their work, causing them to prioritise earnings alone. “I am sure that mass university education is linked to our country’s loss of productivity and growth, and I think it is because it trains young people out of taking risks and the importance of ‘doing’.”
Changing the requirements of the modern workplace means better understanding what non-graduates can bring, says Khyati Sundaram, CEO at Applied, a recruitment platform. This includes “transferable skills like adaptability, resilience, professionalism and initiative; as well as hard skills learnt through early experiences and training”. She adds that Sunak’s comments do hardworking young people a “disservice” as the problem is less about graduates being sold “false dreams” and more about employers using false markers of success to assess candidates. “We must also recognise that when students enter the workforce, their CVs – which list proxies like where they went to university, their name, their hobbies – can be lightning rods for unconscious human bias, meaning many skilled students get overlooked,” she says. Testing for role-relevant skills instead “is the fairest and most accurate way to screen candidates”.
Keay points out that this graduate doesn’t represent all of those who enter employment, and that some careers, such as medicine or law, necessitate formal training. But she thinks that the vast cost of getting a degree now – which leaves the average student in £45,600 of debt – is having a fundamental impact on how new staffers see their work, causing them to prioritise earnings alone. “I am sure that mass university education is linked to our country’s loss of productivity and growth, and I think it is because it trains young people out of taking risks and the importance of ‘doing’.”
Changing the requirements of the modern workplace means better understanding what non-graduates can bring, says Khyati Sundaram, CEO at Applied, a recruitment platform. This includes “transferable skills like adaptability, resilience, professionalism and initiative; as well as hard skills learnt through early experiences and training”. She adds that Sunak’s comments do hardworking young people a “disservice” as the problem is less about graduates being sold “false dreams” and more about employers using false markers of success to assess candidates. “We must also recognise that when students enter the workforce, their CVs – which list proxies like where they went to university, their name, their hobbies – can be lightning rods for unconscious human bias, meaning many skilled students get overlooked,” she says. Testing for role-relevant skills instead “is the fairest and most accurate way to screen candidates”.
Catherine Warrilow, managing director of attractions ticketing agency Days Out, believes that young people need to be made better aware of what their working lives could look like at school, where “it should be far easier to understand what your options are and gain practical advice on what might be right for you”.
Catherine Warrilow: ‘Employers who create rigid expectations will get rigid results’ - Andrew Crowley © Provided by The Telegraph
But the 43-year-old thinks that “businesses are failing young people too”, suggesting that those of a certain size or turnover “should have to engage local schools and colleges and welcome work experience and apprentices more openly”.
“We could do so much to nurture young talent that we’re not doing. When employers focus on degrees, you’re overlooking innate talent, curiosity, eagerness to learn, lived experience and so much more. Employers who create rigid expectations will get rigid results,” Warrilow says.
As of this week, Sunak has cut the amount of paperwork required for small businesses to take on apprentices, which he believes will kickstart the “deeper cultural change we need” to rebalance what the future of work looks like. The question is whether, this time, the proposals will stick.
“We could do so much to nurture young talent that we’re not doing. When employers focus on degrees, you’re overlooking innate talent, curiosity, eagerness to learn, lived experience and so much more. Employers who create rigid expectations will get rigid results,” Warrilow says.
As of this week, Sunak has cut the amount of paperwork required for small businesses to take on apprentices, which he believes will kickstart the “deeper cultural change we need” to rebalance what the future of work looks like. The question is whether, this time, the proposals will stick.