Effective Education for Employment- A Global Perspective

May 2008

Effective
Education for
Employment:
A Global
Perspective
By James Playfoot
Director of Strategy & Ideas
White Loop
Ross Hall
Director of International
Edexcel

Effective Education for Employment:
A Global Perspective

Contents

Foreword 4

Note on language 6

Executive summary 7

Chapter 1: Our approach 11

Chapter 2: Context – the high level issues 15

Chapter 3: Findings – key global issues 20

Chapter 4: Findings – ideas for positive change 32

Chapter 5: The Ideal Employee 37

Chapter 6: Country report – Brazil 40

Chapter 7: Country report – China 47

Chapter 8: Country report – India 54

Chapter 9: Country report – South Africa 61

Chapter 10: Country report – United Arab Emirates 70

Appendix: Participants in provocation meetings 77

Effective Education for Employment: A Global Perspective 3

Foreword

I can trace the roots of this report back to a single, illuminating
day in early 2007. In my quest to find ways of improving education
programmes, I had decided to visit a number of key countries to meet
with government decision-makers, employers, educators and learners.

My very first meeting in this tour was with the Minister of Education,
who was very quick to tell me how bright his school and university
graduates were. As our conversation progressed, however, he told me
that too many high school graduates were not getting into university or
into employment and that ‘vocational’ education was not considered a
positive option by either employers or young people.

Later, I met with the headmaster of a highly respected school who
was very proud of his achievement – delivering a higher than average
proportion of students to top universities, and showing great creativity
in the use of curriculum and facilities to produce what he termed ‘well
rounded, socially responsible’ children. Much of this work was inspiring
and his students seemed like model citizens. However, very few ended up
choosing a vocational education route.

Finally, I met with the CEO of a key business for the region who told me
about the challenges he faces in recruiting individuals who were ‘job-
ready’ - especially from top universities – that too much focus is placed
on academic study - and that, as a result, he was having to invest heavily
in bringing new staff up to speed.

These themes continued to feature heavily in meetings I had over the
following weeks in quite different parts of the world. Everywhere I went,
I discovered great examples of successful, progressive initiatives having
real impact on individuals and businesses. However, I also felt that
more could be done: there was clearly a need to reform education for
employment programmes, improve quality and relevance and build
stronger relationships between education and business.

I decided to commission a piece of research to help crystallise, in my
own mind, the issues; to put them in some sort of order; and to guide
which problems I could practically address.

Our first challenge was scope. Working with partners in around 100
countries and having a strong interest in around 25 of these - as well
as wanting to capture the thoughts of governments, industry, educators
and learners - we decided to conduct broad brush, sometimes informal,
research in 25 countries and to focus heavily on 5 high growth
economies in the hope that any commonalities we found there would be
relevant everywhere. With a few minor exceptions, it would seem that
almost all of our findings are relevant in some way to every country we
have surveyed.

Our second challenge was complexity – to engage people easily and
stimulate debate, I developed the concept of the Ideal Employee. This is
conceived as a practical, easily understood model that will resonate with

4 Effective Education for Employment: A Global Perspective

people from government, industry, education and, of course, individual
learners and employees. This has turned out to be highly successful and
is covered in more depth in Chapter 5.

I am happy to say that after much hard work and anxiety, the results of
our research have proved to be wide-ranging, hugely stimulating and
extremely useful – at the time of writing, we are using our findings to
develop real-world, practical solutions to a number of the issues we have
uncovered.

However, realistically, we can never tackle all of the issues and there
are some clear omissions from this report – for example, we have not
covered issues around technology, educational facilities, funding or
governance. Also, the ideas for positive change in Chapter 4 are far
from comprehensive, being simply a collection of the principle ideas that
were suggested by our respondents and some initial thinking of our own.
Many of our findings beg more questions than suggest answers.

For these reasons, I decided to make our research publicly available
in the hope that it will stimulate thought, debate, further research and
certainly positive action.

I hope you find it useful.

Ross Hall
Director of International, Edexcel Ltd

May 2008


Note on language

One of the key challenges to emerge during the course of this project is
that of language. With this in mind, we have constructed a taxonomy to
use in this report that we hope will be adopted more widely to overcome
these issues. Choosing words is never a precise activity and an element
of personal preference is inevitable. We are also conscious that the terms
we have chosen are all English words – the simple result of English being
our native language.

Specifically, we believe that the term ‘vocational’ often carries negative
connotations and the phrase ‘vocational education and training’ is both
cumbersome and seems to make a distinction between educational
methods that is neither useful nor particularly easy to define. We have
introduced the term ‘education for employment’ in the title of this report.
However, this is, perhaps, also a little too cumbersome for general use.
Instead, we have adopted the phrase ‘professional education’.

While ‘professional’ is used by some people to denote education
programmes that lead learners into certain ‘high status’ jobs such as
law, accountancy, medicine etc, we don’t feel that this is very helpful and
is, in some ways, divisive, contributing to the lower status of education
programmes that are directed at ‘non-professional’ or ‘vocational’ jobs.
In our view, any education programme that successfully delivers people
with the right knowledge, skills and behaviours into gainful employment
is as valid as any other and should be classed under the same name –
‘professional education’.

We also found significant reference, throughout our research, to ‘soft’ or
‘employability’ skills. This, again, is problematic as there is no commonly
accepted term or meaning to describe these particular attributes.
Instead, we propose adopting the phrase ‘portable qualities’. This
refers to qualities that can be used by an employee in any role with any
employer in any industry in any country. In other words, qualities that are
not specific to any sector, role or employer.


Executive
summary


Executive summary

The aims of the Effective Education for Employment project are twofold:

• First, we seek to identify the key challenges around developing
talented, capable people to fulfil the workforce requirements of
businesses and organisations worldwide.
6 in 10 employees
• Second, we seek to begin the process of addressing these
believe their challenges.
academic and
Consequently, this report represents a contribution to the debate and a
professional starting point for further discussion and action.
qualifications The basis of our findings is an integrated research project that has been
prepared them for running for over six months. Our geographical focus is on five of the
world’s fastest growing economies: Brazil, China, India, South Africa and
work United Arab Emirates. This work is supported by significant engagement
within the UK and informal discussions with individuals in 25 other
Source: Edexcel Research 2008
countries.

Interaction has been with the key stakeholders in this debate:
governments, educators, employers, employees and learners. We have
adopted a variety of research methodologies to inform our findings:
face-to-face interviews, round table discussions, quantitative surveys,
telephone interviews, online questionnaires and bulletin boards.

Due to the scope of the project, and the complexity of the issues
We will need addressed, it is difficult to briefly summarise our findings. However, it is
better people in clear that there are key challenges around the following five areas:

10 years time; this • Increasing the quality, relevance, status and accessibility of
professional education.
will be about the
• Creating stronger connections between business, education and
demands of the government as a means of improving education design and delivery.
market place • Developing better methods of assessing the quality of professional
education provision and linking this to an internationally recognised
Employer, Brazil
framework.

• Improving the way that ‘portable qualities’ are developed, nurtured
and assessed and embed these into every level of education.

• Creating better approaches to identifying, communicating and
scaling up examples of best practice.

Beyond this, we have summarised our findings in the following diagram.
This identifies both the specific issues we face (developed further in
Chapter 3 – key global issues), and some of the ways in which these
issues might be addressed (expanded in Chapter 4 – ideas for positive
change).


Figure 1: Effective professional education: global challenges and possible solutions

Economic Maximising
Economic / policy impact
educational
cycle
Workforce Education Education Assessment Progression
requirements design delivery

Globalising Employer Quality & Quality of Learning not Recruitment Low status of
economy voice needs relevance of teaching assessed processes fail vocational
amplifying programmes employers education
Skills race No collective Assessment
responsibility methods
Difficulty in Programmes In-work Best practice
ineffective
defining not connected progression not shared /
Pace of required not effective celebrated
change Quality
qualities
assurance
Teach people Inadequate
standards
to learn certification Learners Need to scale
Increasing lacking misinformed up best
competition
practise
Educate Learning not
portable benchmarked
Ineffective
Increasing qualities more across
in-work
mobility
Issues effectively borders
education

Increasing
Educate
expectations
behaviours
more
effectively
Poverty

Improve basic
education in
schools

Transform
university
education

Develop Ideal Develop Revive & Instigate an New tools to Profile global
Employee positive incentivise international empower education
concept company apprentice- quality system learners successes
cultures ships for towards more widely
professional understanding
Businesses to education employer
take wider Build Teach Set up an
needs
responsibility relationship managers Institute of
New methods
for supporting between to become International
for assessing
skills issues business & educators & Professional
strengths &
within their educators incentivise this Education
weaknesses
industry
of current
staff
Embed Govts. to Government
teaching of legislate for funded
portable business campaign to
qualities into involvement tackle
education in education negative
Ideas perceptions of
professional
Redefine & Transform education
communicate approaches
definition of to teaching
basic skills
Expose
teachers to
Create
business
general skills
environment
curriculum
& train them
focussed on
better
ability to learn

Instigate Code
of Conduct for
educators


What next?
The issues we identify in this report, and the ideas we present are a
starting point. Over the coming months, Edexcel will begin to address
some of these issues by developing new products and services, building
on existing relationships and further investigating how best to tackle the
challenges we all face.

Specifically, Edexcel will

• Develop and communicate the concept of the Ideal Employee
amongst businesses, policy makers and learners/employees.

• Work towards better mechanisms for quality assuring qualifications
globally.

• Design education programmes that help educators develop the
knowledge, skills and behaviours needed by business and industry
worldwide.

We welcome input and debate and relish the challenge ahead.
Aptitude is
something you
can test but
attitude is 100%
to be seen after
the interview
Employee, India


Chapter 1:
Our approach


Chapter 1: Our approach

Objectives
This project is underpinned by a simple and singular premise: that
education is not currently developing appropriately skilled workers in
sufficient numbers to meet the demands of business and society.

Following informal interviews in over 25 countries, it seems that this
premise holds true for many parts of the world. The project set out to
address the following questions:

• Why it is that education is failing to meet the rising demand for
skilled individuals?

• What, specifically, are the key challenges facing businesses,
governments, educators and individuals?

• What needs to change in order to address the key challenges?

• Can we identify the attributes and characteristics that form the Ideal
Employee in the 21st century?

• Can we articulate a positive vision for the future and describe
pathways to get there?

The project is particularly interested in presenting an international
comparison of some of the world’s fastest growing nations. The issues
in these countries are, arguably, most acute. Not only is the pace of
change creating unprecedented demand for skilled labour, but also
these new economic powers are predominantly developing nations
who are facing significant challenges around reforming their education
systems. By looking at these countries in detail, we can discover most
about the demands of the new economy and can characterise the drivers
for change.

Five countries were chosen as a focus for the project:

• Brazil

• China

• India

• South Africa

• United Arab Emirates

Within each country, the project communicated with the key
stakeholders in this debate: employers, employees, educators, learners
and those involved in shaping policy.


Methodology
In order to gain the fullest picture of the realities within each target
country, we adopted a range of methods and approaches. These are
described below:

Secondary research
The project began with an extensive assessment, through secondary
sources, of current thinking and approaches to professional education.
The specific focus of this exercise was to analyse comparative studies
of professional education globally and identify some of the key themes
emerging from this analysis.

This activity culminated in a secondary research report that informed the
design of all subsequent research content. In addition, this study allowed
us to identify a number of expert academics within this field who were
consequently invited to participate in the project.

International provocation series
To enable us to engage with a wide range of leaders from business,
education and policy, and to ensure that we received a cross-section
of opinion, we instigated a series of round-table discussions, or
provocations, in each of the five target countries. These took place
between November 2007 and March 2008.

Prior to the first of these events, a provocation meeting was held in
London. This acted as a pilot, allowing us to test the format and
approach for the meeting and shape the direction of subsequent
discussions. This meeting also provided valuable input for the contextual
picture described in the next chapter.

Each provocation meeting involved between 10 and 15 individuals,
drawn from a range of backgrounds, reflecting the different reference
points through which the debate is filtered.

Representatives from government and those responsible for making
policy were joined by business leaders from corporations and small to
medium sizes enterprises (SMEs) and individuals working within the
education field, both in terms of education provision and academic
study.

Each meeting lasted around three hours and open and honest discussion
was encouraged, with facilitators concentrating on capturing country-
specific context and experiences.

The findings from each meeting have formed the basis for much of the
analysis within this report.

Following the last of the international provocation meetings in Brazil, a
second meeting was held in London to reflect on the initial findings and
to add further input to the wider debate.

The results of this meeting contributed significantly to the thinking in
chapters 4, 5 and 6 of this report.

All participants attended voluntarily. Overall, 85 people took part in the
provocation series across six countries. A list of those attending each of
the events can be found in the appendices at the end of this report.

Primary research project
To augment and support the findings from the international provocation
series, a multi-stage research project was commissioned. Qualitative
depth interviews were initially conducted in October, November and


early December 2007. This activity was augmented by quantitative and
qualitative bulletin boards in February and March 2008. In addition, an
extensive online quantitative survey of employers, employees, learners
and training providers was carried out across the five target countries.

Primary research was undertaken in three stages:

Stage 1: A qualitative stage of 75 telephone or face-to-face depth
interviews with employers, employees and training providers.

Stage 2: A quantitative online study of 1723 respondents – respondents
were screened to ensure they matched one of the following criteria:
they worked for a company employing 250 or more staff; were decision
makers within a private training company or university; were students
pre-work.

Online interviews were conducted with the following groups:

• 514 employers

• 530 employees

• 165 training providers, including 38 universities

• 514 learners

Spread across the following countries:

• 340 in Brazil

• 346 in China

• 349 in India

• 350 in South Africa

• 338 in UAE

Each interview lasted between 15 and 30 minutes.

Stage 3: An online bulletin board of approximately 100 participants was
convened to further discuss key issues from the research.

Results from this primary research project are integrated throughout
this report, both in the generic findings and in the specific statistics and
quotes that appear in the margins of each page.


Chapter 2:
Context – the
high level issues


Chapter 2: Context – the high level
issues

The diagram below provides an overview of the global context within
which this debate sits. Beneath that is an explanation of the key issues
facing governments, educators, business/industry, and individuals.

Irrespective of Figure 2: Global context

the business 1 3 2
models they adopt Economic/ Where are Educational
policy factors we now factors
in response to
ongoing global Global skills
race

change, the
war for talent
remains a key Globalising
economy
concern among
CEOs worldwide,
ranking second Unprecedented
rates of
only to a potential change
Disconnect
economic between
industry
downturn as the demand and
DISCONNECT

Education
Shortage of
Increasing education
systems
people with
biggest threat to
competition design
struggling to
the skills that
meet industry
industry
business growth. Not enough
needs
needs
businesses
taking
Employer, Brazil education
Individuals role
are
increasingly
mobile

Poverty

Individuals
have
increasingly
high
expectations


Summary of contextual issues

1. Economic/policy factors

1.1 Globalising economy

• The economies of the world are diverging – global outsourcing
within the manufacturing and service sectors increasingly
predominate. Businesses now see no boundaries to setting up
wherever they think their interests will be best served. This process
has seen the emergence of new economic powers.

• The knowledge economy, and the emerging concept of the
Only 50% of
experience economy, require a workforce that has flexibility and
creativity at its heart.
employers
provide learning
• The demand for talented people has never been higher, and the
opportunities for individuals and businesses never greater.
& development
certification which
1.2 Global skills race
demonstrates levels
• Many countries are involved in a ‘global skills race’ that will
of competence
determine economic fortunes in the foreseeable future and this race
is intensifying.
• The nature of skills demand is increasingly consistent – more and
more, businesses and organisations worldwide are looking for the
same type of people with a core set of portable qualities.

1.3 Unprecedented rates of change

• There is widespread recognition amongst businesses and
government that future economic success rests significantly on the
ability of educators and industry to develop and nurture a highly
flexible workforce.

2 in 10 current
• Economic growth rates in China, India and Brazil are outstripping
those of established economies by two or three times, creating
employees
significant challenges for education systems in these countries.
acknowledge that
their qualifications
1.4 Increasing competition
did not prepare
• With the intensity and scale of competition increasing rapidly,
them for the job
industry needs workers who excel in quality service provision,
innovation and leadership.
they do now
• Organisations want to recruit work-ready employees and believe
that the cost of recruiting, mis-recruiting, developing and retaining
a competitive workforce inhibits their competitiveness.

1.5 Individuals are increasingly mobile

• Significant challenges around moving a predominantly rural
workforce from agricultural to industrial and knowledge-based
activities in emerging economies like China and India.

• Desire amongst many in emerging economies to experience study
and work in other countries and a sense that there are no barriers to
educational or professional mobility.


• Increasing mobility of the workforce, coupled with the rapidity of
change within particular roles or sectors, is creating demand for a
more flexible, adaptable employee.

1.6 Poverty

• Despite astonishing rates of economic growth, many emerging
economies are still facing significant issues of poverty – for example,
United Nations figures estimate that 21% of the population of Brazil
is living beneath the poverty line.

• Provision of access to education for all remains the goal but is still
some distance away for many.

• Unemployment is also high in many emerging economies – South
45% of employees Africa has seen significant economic growth but without this being
matched by growth in employment.
are receiving
limited or very little 1.7 Individuals have increasingly high expectations
training from their
• Economic growth is funding the expansion of educational
employer opportunity. This, in turn, is raising the expectations level amongst
learners/employees – they want better jobs and faster progression.

• Growth is also creating unprecedented employment opportunities
and, in many countries, an expanding wealthy middle class who
become the aspirational blueprint for those in work and those
entering employment for the first time.

2. Educational factors

2.1 Disconnect between industry demand and education design

• There is a disconnect between industry and educators that needs
to be systematically addressed in order to improve the effectiveness
of education programmes and increase collaboration around the
Exam assessment delivery of these programmes.
continues to • A relationship between course content and the world of work is
be the most often lacking, particularly in academic (university) education.
popular method • The imperative for employers to articulate what they need is
of assessment accepted by all.

– 73% learners • Beyond articulating demand, the need for business to engage in the
design and delivery of professional education is vital.
assessed through
examination 2.2 Not enough businesses taking education role
• Despite complaining of the ineffectiveness of educators, industry is
not taking collective responsibility for education.

• Not enough engagement with educators and work-related
education programmes.

• Business leaders are often sceptical towards the effectiveness of
public initiatives and prefer to invest in their own solutions.

• Generally not providing adequate in-work education.


• Where in-work education is provided, this is done in isolation and is,
therefore, not scaleable.

• Not enough linking education to progression.

2.3 Education systems struggling to meet industry needs

• While there are many examples of progressive and successful
initiatives, by and large, systems of education are not effective
in developing the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for
modern employment.

• Many countries are facing an ongoing struggle to provide access to
basic education – in South Africa it is estimated that 70% of those
leaving the education system lack basic literacy and numeracy skills.
Only 3 in 10
• Need to address basic education comes before the requirement to
learners expect to
develop the ‘higher’ skills required by business and industry.
develop portable
• Employers and industry are increasingly disillusioned with the quality
qualities from
and skills of those entering the job market following academic study.
their studies – the
• Perception of academic study as superior to professional education
expectation is
persists, particularly amongst learners and potential employees.

that these will be
developed when in
3. Where we are now
work
3.1 Shortage of people with the skills that industry needs Source: Edexcel Research 2008

• There is a clear and significant shortage of appropriately skilled
individuals to meet the demands of business and industry in most
countries.

• Governments in all major economic centres recognise the acute
need for improving and expanding their professional education
strategies.

Only 6 in 10
• Technical knowledge and an ability to carry out a role remain key
requirements.
employees are
satisfied with
• Behaviours and attitudes needed to succeed in a commercial,
service-oriented environment are seen as deficient.
learning &
• ‘Employability’ skills are increasingly on the agenda in the UK/
development they
Europe and the US, and will inevitably be more in demand in the
received from their
global marketplace.
employer
• There is evidence to support the contention that middle and senior
management roles are not being filled by appropriately skilled
individuals, perhaps, in part, due to the speed of promotion that
goes hand-in-hand with rapid economic growth.

• Creativity and innovation are highly valued qualities that are ever
more relevant to the modern business environment.


Chapter 3:
Findings – key
global issues


Chapter 3: Findings – key global issues

The concept of globalisation is often used to refer to the blurring of
international economic boundaries and the increasing connectivity of the
world’s economies. It seems now that professional education sits firmly
within this paradigm.

While country-specific skills demands still exist, the focus of education
is ever more on portable qualities that individuals can use in any job,
in any sector, anywhere in the world. The irony is that in the knowledge
economy, knowledge alone is not enough and, in fact, is less important
than having the right attitude and understanding how to learn and how
to behave. In one sense, the challenges for education are very much
social and are therefore culturally defined.
On the job
However, the overall picture of demand and need is remarkably similar
learning is the
across the world. And it is possible to characterise both a set of common
issues (which we do below) and propose a series of actions to improve
backbone of most
the impact education can have on the ability of a workforce to support
employers’ training
and grow the economy (which we do in chapter 4).
programmes. It is
Finally, we develop the definition of the ideal 21st century employee in
used by 7 in 10
chapter 5 as one mechanism to catalyse change.

employers
Many good things are already happening, and it will be some time
before the impact of policy changes, as well as business-led initiatives,
will be known. However, new thinking, new ideas and new approaches
are required.

The global issues
The diagram in Figure 3 gives an overview of the issues identified during
our research and maps these to the various stages of economic and
educational progression that typically exist within an economy. The detail
around these challenges is then expanded upon.

Discussion of key global issues
The issues identified overleaf relating to economic policy are discussed in
Chapter 2 – context. Further issues exist in the following areas:

1. Workforce Requirements

1.1 Need to amplify employer voice

• There is, generally, a sense of scepticism from business leaders
towards the nature and level of their involvement in professional
education strategy and policies.


Figure 3: Findings: global issues

1 2 3 4 5 6

Economic Maximising
Economic / policy impact
educational
cycle Workforce Education Education Assessment Progression
requirements design delivery

Globalising Employer Quality & Quality of Learning not Recruitment Low status of
economy voice needs relevance of teaching assessed processes fail vocational
amplifying programmes employers education
Skills race No collective Assessment
responsibility methods
Difficulty in Programmes In-work Best practice
ineffective
defining not connected progression not shared /
Pace of required not effective celebrated
change Quality
qualities
assurance
Teach people Inadequate
standards
to learn certification Learners Need to scale
Increasing lacking misinformed up best
competition
practise
Educate Learning not
portable benchmarked
Ineffective
Increasing qualities more across
in-work
mobility
Issues effectively borders
education

Increasing
Educate
expectations
behaviours
more
effectively
Poverty

Improve basic
education in
schools

Transform
university
education

• In some cases, there are simply not the mechanisms in place to
facilitate this interaction. In others, the structures are seen as
cumbersome, irrelevant or ineffective.

• The need for industry to articulate what it needs and then to
contribute to the design of any solution is starkly apparent. This
should be policy-led and should involve significant initiatives aimed
at generating impact across the board.

• The example of Sector Education & Training Authorities (SETA)
in South Africa is apposite in this context: many agree with the
principle of sector-driven authorities. However, perceptions of the
effectiveness of this set-up vary – in some sectors, the representative
SETA is seen as proactive, dynamic and valued. In others, this is not
the case.

• If government and policy makers can provide the political and
economic support for these initiatives, businesses certainly seem
positive about contributing.

• Those who manage this process most effectively will see long-term
benefits accrue from having a policy driven by need and not by
guesswork.


1.2 Difficulty in defining required qualities

• Because of a fundamental disconnect between employers,
government and education/educators, there are significant
problems around communicating business needs and requirements.

• However, before even that, there are issues around the specific
definition of requirements with businesses ill-equipped to identify
specific skills gaps.

• Whilst employers often have an idea of the qualities and attributes
they are looking for in an Ideal Employee, they more often than not
fail to articulate this into a coherent vision.

• Without clearer definitions of required qualities, education will
struggle to meet demand and potential employees choosing
educational pathways will do so without the benefit of knowing
what sort of abilities and attributes they should be acquiring and
developing.

2. Education design
Skills gaps exist
2.1 Quality and relevance of programmes needs to improve
for both new
• Raising the standard, and, in particular, the relevance of course
joiners and more
content is paramount.
experienced staff.
• The issue is not, predominantly, one of availability. Many of the
Gaps around
training and education markets studied are vibrant. However, the
leadership,
quality and relevance of what the market delivers is inconsistent.

teamwork and
• Employers are increasingly sceptical of the value of qualifications in
teaching individuals how to do a specific job.
creativity and
• There’s widespread acknowledgement that the pace of change
innovation persist
in industry is far outstripping the ability of policy or education
and continue to
systems to react. This means that education programmes are often
outdated by the time the student has completed the course.
present employers
with difficulties
• There are instances where courses in new niche areas are not
actually available through public institutions. For example, the
in training and
Managing Director of a hugely successful animation studio in Delhi
development
explained that there are currently no publicly funded animation
courses from which he can recruit. The education system is
irrespective of
constantly playing catch-up.
experience level
• Quality and relevance will only increase if there are structures in
place to facilitate industry and business involvement in the design of Source: Edexcel Research 2008
curricula.

2.2 Programmes are not connected

• As training and education markets become more fragmented and
deregulated, education programmes increasingly lack relativity to
one another not only internationally but within specific countries
and even within certain sectors.

• Furthermore, there is a trend towards businesses ‘doing their own
thing’ in response to what they see as endemic failures in the
education system. This increases the sense of disconnection.


• This isolationism in the design of qualifications creates problems as
individuals may find themselves learning the same thing more than
once thereby wasting their, or their employers’, time and money.

• This also impacts on an individual’s ability to plan their professional
development as it becomes difficult to navigate an appropriate
pathway through the ill-defined and disconnected educational
landscape.

2.3 We are not teaching people how to learn

• The ability to learn is both highly prized by employers and extremely
valuable to individuals.

• There is evidence that this is often an attribute that’s overlooked,
difficult to teach or impossible to quantify.

• If an individual lacks the facility or attitude to learn, there is only so
far additional education and training can take them.

When we hire, • As globalisation generates opportunities for talented individuals, a
demonstrable ability to learn equates with adaptability, another key
language and quality valued by employers in the knowledge economy.
communication • How you teach people to learn, and how you then assess their
skills are basics... ability to do so, are issues that need addressing urgently.

and also a 2.4 Need to educate portable qualities more effectively
person’s attitude • The issue of portable qualities and their role, now and in the future,
and whether he dominated discussions in every country.

is going to stay or • There is a need to address the language around this as there is
no unified definition of what we mean by soft skills, particularly in
not a global context. Some people referred to employability skills and
some talked about job-ready skills.
Employer, India

• It is clear is that the mix of portable qualities needed is wide and
varied and increasingly forms the basis of what constitutes an Ideal
Employee.

• Enthusiasm and capacity to learn; a positive, progressive attitude;
a sense of responsibility – are seen as essential qualities, alongside
more traditional soft skills – communication, leadership, team
working.

• The challenge is, in part, to do with the complexities of teaching
and assessing these qualities. There is some debate around whether
certain skills can even be taught at all, or should even be considered
skills in the traditional sense – can you teach attitude or respect?
The design and delivery of professional education programmes
must reflect the need to address significant gaps in developing these
qualities.

• We need a better understanding of the way people learn portable
qualities, and we need to develop more effective mechanisms
for measuring the breadth and quality of an individuals’ portable
qualities.

• Employers everywhere rank attitude as a key factor when recruiting
and developing staff.


2.5 Need to focus more on behaviours and attitudes

• Employers everywhere highlighted their experiences of young
people leaving education and entering work lacking a fundamental
awareness of how they should behave and how important a positive
attitude is in being an effective, productive employee.

• There are some differences within this: in the UK and India
expectations of what a job should give the individual – personally
and financially – are, generally, extremely high and do not relate to
levels of skill or experience. In South Africa and Brazil, expectations
of entry-level positions tend to be much lower. However, attitude is
still a key issue.

• There is a sense that many young people entering work for the first
time feel they have achieved enough simply by securing a job and
are not motivated to work hard or to progress. For some, retaining
their job is the limit of their ambition.

• In China, loyalty and commitment to the company are cited as
growing concerns for employers. The reasons for this are not
entirely clear. Interestingly, many employees do not see themselves
as lacking these qualities.
Nearly 1 in 2
• The disconnect between what an employer considers a good
employers say
attitude and what that means to an employee/potential employee is
significant. Perhaps this is partly about a lack of consensus between
that staff
employers and employees around common standards of behaviour,
turnover is high
but this also has to be seen as a reflection of social issues.
• It is society as a whole – families, schools, communities – who have
to take equal responsibility for encouraging and fostering more
appropriate attitudes amongst those beginning their careers.

2.6 Need to improve basic education in schools

• The quality and provision of primary and secondary education is
paramount. Without an effective grounding in basic skills from a
young age, the impact further or higher education can have in
preparing appropriately skilled individuals for the world of work will
be severely reduced.

• The challenges around the quality and provision of basic education
in the developing world are acute and it’s easy to forget, amongst
talk of record growth and economic miracles, that many of the
world’s fastest growing economies are still fighting a huge battle
against poverty and providing educational opportunity for all.

• The rewards of economic prosperity are already fuelling huge
investment in basic education across the world. While the social
imperatives for sustaining and increasing this investment are
undeniable, the long-term impact on the quality and size of the
workforce will be profound. However, it will be years, if not decades,
before the impact of this investment is discernable.

2.7 Need to transform university education

• While there remain notional and real divisions between the
‘academic’ world and the ‘vocational education’ world, these
distinctions are increasingly unhelpful or even misleading.

• Many universities now teach what may be considered ‘vocational’


degrees (as well as continuing to provide the majority of entrants
to the traditional ‘professions’ – doctors; lawyers etc). However, the
quality and content of these courses is often poor and needs to be
transformed.

• There should be an attempt to influence the curricula of diploma
and degree courses everywhere so that they include some element
of portable qualities teaching.

• Pure academic study is not irrelevant, rather the reality is that many
graduates do not, during the course of their studies, develop the
basic portable qualities so sought after by employers.

3. Education delivery

3.1 Quality of teaching should be improved

• If the quality and effectiveness of professional education is to
There is a training improve, the ability and the methods of teachers and trainers needs
to be addressed.
culture now in
• Although there are many examples across the world of great
India and in the teachers delivering quality content in dynamic and engaging ways,
next ten years it the demand for good teachers that accompanies rapid economic
growth and the broadening of access to education is not being met
will be very big. and the quality of learning is suffering as a consequence.
Training Provider, India • Many countries are aware of the need to invest in this – Brazil
is pursuing a significant programme of upskilling teaching staff.
However, more needs to be done.

• There is a need to reform teaching methods, particularly in relation
to professional education. Reliance on a traditional teaching
approach – class-based learning by rote – prevails.

• Activities within the classroom setting should be focussed more on
engaging and involving learners in experiential activities.

• There needs to be significantly greater opportunities for interaction
between learners and employers. This could take many forms but
must lie at the heart of professional education.

3.2 Responsibility for education delivery should be shared

• An exchange during the provocation meeting held in South Africa
provided an illuminating insight into a critical issue: one voice stated
that it was not the job of schools to prepare people for work. This
was swiftly rebuked by another who said that it was not the job of
businesses to give people an education. The answer, it seems, lies
somewhere in the middle.

• For education to begin to meet the needs of the world’s economies,
business and industry have to play a significant role in delivery. The
reality is that the vast majority of businesses, from corporations to
SMEs, are already having an impact on the education of their own
staff and, to a lesser degree, their future workforce.

• The nature of this involvement is complex and varied. In many
instances, the participation of business is voluntary. There are
places – Brazil for example – where business participation in


education is written into legislation. Elsewhere, many companies are
assuming significant responsibility for educating their own workforce
because they see the education system as ineffective and have
little faith it will change in the near future. The only way to get the
workforce they want is to build it themselves.

• This is creating a parallel system – one where publicly funded
initiatives operate in isolation from private/corporate education
programmes.

• Within this, the emerging trend is for professional education to start
at the point when a candidate begins working for an organisation.
The education received by the new employee prior to recruitment is
sometimes disregarded or viewed as largely irrelevant.

• The growth of corporate universities and institutes demonstrates
this new reality – businesses are effectively replacing the education
system with their own solutions.

• The quality of business-led training is, in some cases, considered to
be high. As it’s happening in-house, learners often receive greater
access to real world experiences. It is also theoretically much easier
for a business to design and then fine-tune their own course content
1 in 4 employers
to ensure relevance.

admit that it is
• Although quality can be high, the impact on the wider education
system is negligible as this approach is happening predominantly in
difficult to recruit
isolation the education and training offered at a corporate level is
the right staff
often seen as part of a company’s competitive edge.
• Although the education and training that individuals receive within
company walls does feed the skills pool, the lack of cooperation
within sectors mitigates against greater achievements in this area.

• It is only by finding economic and practical models for sharing the
responsibility for professional education that the requisite impact will
be felt.

3.3 Quality assurance standards are lacking

• In an increasingly fragmented marketplace, the need for recognised
quality standards is greater than ever.

• As course quality and teaching methods improve, quality assurance
becomes vital in promoting good practice and rewarding those who
offer genuinely effective education programmes.

• Quality assurance is as much an issue for the learner or employee
as it is for employers: the learner needs to know where they can
best spend their time in education and the employer needs to have
a better understanding of the value of professional qualifications.

3.4 In-work education programmes are often ineffective

• Research results show that the gaps that exist in an individual’s skill
set when they start work tend to still be in evidence some years later.
This suggests that many in-work education programmes are failing
to deliver effective skills development.

• In some cases, the reason for persistent skills gaps is that many
employers provide little or no education to their staff. Some
employers see it as the role of the individual to up-skill themselves.


• Part of the problem lies in the fact that there are not currently
effective measurement techniques in place to identify where an
individual is in terms of their skills needs.

• There is also evidence to suggest that many in-work education
programmes are not linked to effective or validated assessment
models, even if the quality of the learning may, in some cases, be
high.

4. Assessment

4.1 Learning is not being effectively assessed

• It is only by assessing the effectiveness and impact of learning that
an individual can understand what they have learnt and appreciate
where it is they should go next with their education.

• In many cases, education and training is provided within a work
We will need context and in an informal way. Consequently, no assessment of
learning is carried out. Although this does not inherently reduce the
better people in impact of the learning, assessment provides a vital mechanism for
10 years time; this measurement and grading.

will be about the • Even within structured training programmes, learning itself (or
rather what has been learnt) is not directly assessed. This relates to
demands of the the next point.
market place.
4.2 Assessment methods need to improve
Employer, Brazil
• Currently, there are significant challenges around the way in which
learning achievements are assessed with particular gaps in terms of
practical assessment.

• There need to be better mechanisms for businesses to assess the
current strengths and weaknesses of their employees to support
more effective development and progression.

• Particular focus should be given – for both learners and employees
– to developing more appropriate and effective ways of assessing
portable qualities.

4.3 Certification is inadequate

• In too many cases, certification is not representative of a particular
level of competence but is simply proof of attendance or, at best, an
indication of an ability to pass an exam.

• Often, learning is not certified at all – particularly within the context
of in-work education programmes, many courses are not certified
(or are not accredited by a recognised body). This makes it difficult
for the employee or learner to prove what they have learnt.

• Employers still value certification as a way of understanding or
measuring competence but they are losing faith in many certificates
– too much certification currently has little perceived value to the
employer.

4.4 Learning is not benchmarked across boarders


• The increased mobility of workers has created a need for
more meaningful international standards of accreditation and
certification.

• Within certain businesses, staff can be moved between countries but
country-specific technical requirements sometimes force employees
to retrain locally to receive the qualification they need in order to
practice, in spite of the fact that they may be perfectly well-qualified
to do the job.

• This is also an issue of progression for employees – as more
individuals cross international boundaries to work, they want to be
able to take their qualifications with them and ensure that they will
hold value wherever they go.

• Additionally, there is a need to develop ways of benchmarking the
qualifications of one provider against those of another.

5. Progression

5.1 Recruitment processes are failing employers
The majority of
• As the value and importance of portable qualities increases,
employers find it
and the workforce becomes ever more mobile, the way in which
difficult to assess
organisations recruit staff must change.

candidates’ soft
• One of the principle problems facing many businesses currently
is that they find it extremely difficult to assess the level of portable
skills and therefore
qualities an individual has during recruitment.
find it most difficult
• This is, in part, down to a paucity of relevant and respected
to find candidates
qualifications that effectively teach and assess these sorts of
with appropriate
qualities.

leadership skills,
• There is also a legacy of out-dated recruitment methodologies.
able to multi-task
• Many businesses rate the ability to work in a team as one of the
most valuable skills a new recruit can have. However, very few have
and with the
a clear idea of how to assess this quality at interview. The most
right level of
common approach to assessing the ability an individual has to
work in a team is to ask them directly whether they feel that they
commitment to
work well in a team. The answer one receives to this question is,
the role
arguably, of little or no value.
• Some organisations have developed more sophisticated practical
interview procedures that allow them to get a much fuller picture
of the characteristics and traits an individual would bring to a role.
However, these examples are the exception and tend to happen in
larger businesses with the resources to support such an approach.

• If organisations are to make the most of the talent that exists,
they must develop better ways of understanding and assessing the
qualities a candidate possesses.

5.2 In-work progression is not effective

• Currently employers are not providing their employees with effective
mechanisms to articulate and map their job progression. This is
having a negative impact on professional education choices.

• There is a paucity of formally recognised professional development


planning taking place within businesses – employees often feel left
alone to identify what educational options they should take.

• Professional education within work is, as a consequence of the
ineffective (or non-existent) frameworks currently in place, struggling
to match the expectations or aspirations of either employer or
employee.

• A more considered framework, supported by better assessment
methodologies, may significantly increase the relevance and impact
of employees’ professional education activity.

5.3 Learners are not adequately informed

• Due, in part, to a disconnect between education and industry, there
are growing problems around the poor choices learners are making
in regard of their educational progression.

• Without a steer from business, there are certain areas of study that,
in relation to job opportunities, are hugely oversubscribed leaving
too many qualified individuals fighting for a small number of jobs.

• There are many examples of learners pursuing what they believe to
be a high-potential educational pathway only to discover that their
qualification has little or no perceived value in the labour market.

• The value of specific qualifications is often related to the issue
of relevance. However, whilst employers may be aware of the
relevance of specific qualifications, learners often are not and can
find themselves without the necessary applicable knowledge when
they start work.

• There should be better generic advice about the direction in which
an individual should travel if they want to become a successful
employee, and more specific advice within certain sectors about the
quality and relevance of the various qualifications available.

6. Maximising impact

6.1 Professional education has a low status

• Despite the reality, clearly articulated by business and industry,
that academic study does not address the skills needs of modern
economies or adequately prepare people for the workplace, learners
persist in the belief that an academic education is of greater value
than professional qualifications.

• Standards of content and teaching must be raised in order to
change the perception of professional education as second class.

• In emerging economies, where educational opportunity is still more
of a privilege than a right, learners automatically look towards the
top of the educational ladder and will seek to secure a place at the
best academic institution they can. This fulfils their own aspirations
and those of their family.

• The common perception is that professional (vocational) study is
where you end up if you cannot make it academically.

• Perceptions of the value of professional education should focus on
the knowledge, skills and behaviours learnt during the course and


Effective Education for Employment- A Global Perspective

Effective Education for Employment- A Global Perspective

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