There are few more important subjects than how we prepare the next generation – our future – for life and work. In recent years, there has been extensive reform of the education system, with the academy programme pioneered by Labour and extended by the coalition and Conservative governments. What you study at school matters, studying matters, and exams matter. But as Hillary Clinton once wrote, ‘it takes a village’ to prepare young people for adulthood, and exams and school alone are not enough.
Recent research from National Citizen Service suggests that the age group we work with, 15-17-year-olds, and their parents believe that exams are more important than anything else to getting on in life. More than three quarters of teenagers said that they will cut out friendships, family time, hobbies and even sleep to get good results. Only 13 per cent of parents think their child spending time on hobbies and non-school interests is of importance, and only 12 per cent think they should prioritise taking part in activities to help them develop practical skills for the future.
Despite this, employers are demanding more rounded employees. Indeed, in another NCS study with King’s College London, we found that 60 per cent of employers value social intelligence or EQ over academic intelligence or IQ. The top three skills that employers demanded for work place progression – verbal communication, teamwork and interpersonal skills – are all skills that are hard to study for in an exam.
In a recent speech to the TUC, the Bank of England’s chief economist Andy Haldane warned that up to 15 million jobs were threatened by robots and automation in the workplace. As we prepare the next generation to thrive over their working lives, it is our most human qualities – our confidence, our creativity and our compassion – that will help them to stand out in the age of the robot.
These skills can best be developed by exposing young people to opportunities outside the classroom alongside their formal studies. At NCS, we bring young people from a range of backgrounds together in common purpose, stretch them outside their comfort zones in the great outdoors, offer them the chance to develop life skills like public speaking in a university setting, and help them to design and deliver a practical project to improve their community. The teenagers who take part leave more connected, more confident and more compassionate and three quarters feel more confident about getting a job.
The challenge that we face as a country is that access to these extra curricular activities is not equal. In his latest book, Our Kids, American academic Robert Putnam found that parents in the richest decile were spending six times more on extra curricular activities than those in the poorest decile. In the United Kingdom, the #iwill campaign – of which NCS is a proud founding member – found that better off young people were around 30 per cent more likely to be taking part in social action opportunities than those from less well off backgrounds.
Tackling the social mobility crisis in our country is one of the major objectives of NCS, and that is why we think that government should back NCS as a universal rite of passage available to all, regardless of ability. Government backing has enabled us to reach more than 275,000 young people in the last six years, making us the fastest growing youth organisation in our country for a century. While we want to reach all young people, we are proud to have achieved higher representation among the hardest to reach, with more than the national average taking part among those on free school meals, those with disabilities, and those from ethnic minorities.
This year almost one in six eligible teenagers will take part in NCS, which is a remarkable testament to the dedication of the next generation to investing in their futures and giving back to their communities. But we want many more young people to benefit from NCS.
As a bill to place NCS on a statutory footing enters parliament this autumn, this is an important time – not just for us as an organisation, but for the future of hundreds of thousands of young people who will be guaranteed of the opportunity of taking part in the programme. This bill provides the chance to create a new national institution that sits alongside school, making NCS a rite of passage and a normal part of growing up.
NCS is already changing hundreds of thousands of lives, but with continued support for this popular, life-changing programme, we will transform communities and empower generations of young people by giving them the confidence and skills they require to exceed in the world outside the classroom.
———————————
Michael Lynas is chief executive of the National Citizen Service Trust. He tweets @michael_lynas