Neither school leavers nor university graduates are providing employers with what they need due to basic problems with literacy, numeracy and attitude, a Tesco executive said today.
The broadside came only days after university union, the UCU, slammed the business community for failing to “make a proper contribution” to funding for higher education, despite being one of its three main beneficiaries alongside the state and individual students concerned.
But in a speech to the Institute of Grocery Distribution’s conference of skills, Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco’s director of corporate and legal affairs, warned that, even though many ‘A-Level’ students and university graduates were barely able to read, write or understand maths, they were achieving better academic results than ever.
The Oxford graduate, who worked in the Downing Street Policy Unit and the Cabinet Office during John Major’s premiership, also attacked those students who felt that employment was their right and who had “what you might call an attitude problem”.
“They don’t seem to understand the importance of a tidy appearance and have problems with time-keeping. Some seem to think that the world owes them a living. The truth is that a certain humility and an ability to work hard are important for success,” Neville-Rolfe said.
Moreover, in a broader sense, “a society where people don’t feel the need to work to gain material possessions will not be a stable or successful society”, she added.
The attack is the second time in just under six months that Tesco – the UK’s largest employer, with 280,00 staff, 41,000 of whom are under 20 – has publicly criticised the education system and the quality of those leaving it.
Last October the retailer’s chief executive Sir Terry Leahy said: “Despite all the money that has been spent, standards are still woefully low in too many schools. Employers like us…..are often left to pick up the pieces.”
His comments were subsequently echoed by Richard Lambert, director general of employers’ lobby group the CBI, and Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of Marks & Spencer.
But Neville-Rolfe pinned part of the blame for the situation on too much government bureaucracy. There were “too many agencies and oversight bodies and too much paperwork”, which meant that it was not surprising if teachers “sometimes get distracted from the most important task at hand: teaching children well in the classroom”, she said.
The government and teaching unions have repeatedly dismissed attacks by business leaders on educational standards, however, claiming that they have never been higher. The UCU also pointed to a report by the Royal Society entitled ‘The Scientific Century: securing our future prosperity’, which indicates that the UK business community is spending less on research and development than other countries.
In 2007, UK companies spent only 1.14% of gross domestic product on such activity compared with 1.9% in the US and 1.8% in Germany. As a result, the union said it was now time for them to make a “fair contribution” in line with the “many benefits” that they received from higher education.
Sally Hunt, the UCU’s general secretary, said: “Far from universities failing the UK economy, it is British business that is letting the side down. We believe the UK should increase corporation tax to the G7 average and ring fence that extra money as the long overdue contribution to higher education from British business.”
