Hundreds of thousands of UK 16 year olds got their GCSE results yesterday with record grades reported yet again. The vast majority of these will be welcomed by further education establishments in September as they begin working towards higher level academic or vocational qualifications.
But for those who choose not to progress in education the welcome from employers is less warm. The most recent quarterly survey of the labour market by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development released on Tuesday this week suggests that employers are choosing to recruit from the wider European Union, claiming that they are better skilled to take on the roles available than young people from the UK. In fact, only 12% of employers are interested in recruiting 16 year olds – a drop of 25% since last year.
The CIPD reports that employers believe that school leavers lack the necessary levels of literacy and numeracy required, and also that they do not have sufficient customer service or communication skills.
Customer Service Psychology 