Skills inquiry: curriculum is ‘limiting opportunities’

Problems with the national curriculum, employer engagement, and the quality of careers advice mean that students are leaving school unprepared for today’s workplace, a nine-month inquiry by the Skills Commission has found.

The study, entitled Still in Tune? The Skills System and the Changing Structures of Work, said the input of secondary schools was “critical” in ensuring that the skills system meets the needs of the UK economy and that this begins at the age of 14 when pupils take their options for study at GCSE.

However, it says that the current curriculum could be “limiting opportunities” for students and that many employers now prized work experience and evidence of skills over qualifications. The report states: “Employers we spoke to told us that adaptability and fusion skills were increasingly valuable to them. They also voiced concerns that the curriculum was narrowing variety, limiting opportunities for practical work, and upholding unhelpful divisions between the academic, vocational, creative and scientific.”