UKNM: Fresh Minds

[Charlie Osmond]

Ben,


You said 4 things which I will deal with separately:


1. Ben Metcalfe wrote: "Why do you say that school leavers are looking for

long-term employment with just one company?  I don't think there is any

proof or reason to assume that"


I never said (or implied) this, what on earth makes you think that I did? -

besides it surely has nothing to do with this debate.


2. Ben wrote: "surely school leavers are the people who have taken the

initiative, got off their a***s and learnt skills independently".


I think it is wrong for you to claim that university graduates have not got

off their a***s and learnt skills independently. I know of loads of grads

that have taught themselves all manner of skills outside their university

education. Do you have anything to back up your claim?


3. Ben: "Grads, on the other hand, have been spoon-fed education and had

their learning channelled for them".


Whilst I agree that spoon-feeding does go on within higher education it is

utterly fallacious to generalise and imply that grads take no active role in

their education. Yes, it is usually channelled, but there is good reason for

this - it lends structure to the education process. Are you trying to claim

that education should be unstructured? or unchannelled?


4. Ben wrote "Which of the two is going to survive and perform best in a

commercial environment?"


I am afraid to say that all the governments statistics on this question

point overwhelmingly against you. There is a strong correlation between

those countries which provide university education and economic success.

There is certainly no doubt that the Asian Tigers attribute much of their

success to an increase in further-education provision.


I suppose other ways in which to test this are to look at the CEO's of the

countries top firms. I don't have these figures to hand, and it could be

argued that other factors play a part in actually securing jobs, but I'm

sure it's at least 80% grads. Certainly in terms of remuneration, graduates

earn significantly more than non-graduates over their lifetime.


Now I don't claim that this is because they do a better job, but the

justification for the recent call for a graduate tax is to correct for the

benefit graduates receive from their education - so by implication they do

"survive" best in a commercial environment.


I hope this clarifies some of your questions. But please, if you have

further comments - don't waste the groups time (they must be bored of Fresh

Minds by now) and talk to me direct.


Charlie

__________________________

Charlie Osmond

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