Over half of UK CEOs (54 percent) responding to a new survey believe the current education system is failing future workers, and that degrees and A levels are no longer a guarantee of career success.
The research, commissioned by Skillsoft and conducted by Opinion Matters, found that while 63 percent of CEOs valued qualifications in their future managers, they believed the education system does not provide the basic skills that employees needs.
Kevin Young, general manager, EMEA at Skillsoft, said: “There seems to be a disconnect between the skills gained whilst in education and those that employers need their new starters to have. With businesses working leaner and smarter to achieve success, they now expect more from their employees when it comes to basic office skills, in order to hit the ground running.
“A case in point is IT skills. We have noticed an increase in demand among our customers for basic IT training and, with the ICT curriculum set to be replaced with a computer science qualification from 2014, it could take time to close the gap. Industry and education need to work closer together to ensure that students are gaining the appropriate skills for work, which can be fine-tuned and developed with on the job training and support,” added Young.
The study surveyed 503 CEOs of businesses across 13 business sectors, all with over 250 employees.
The research can be studied in the latest Skillsoft whitepaper entitled ‘CEO perspectives on people: leadership, recruitment and skills.’ The whitepaper can be downloaded here.
