Many on dole 'needlessly’

Press, 30 April 1981, Page 6

Many on dole 'needlessly’

Many school leavers are needlessly on the dole, the president of-the Employers’ Federation, Mr S. ,W. B. Duncan' has said. >! This had occurred because the education system • had failed to provide school leavers with.-ascomprehen-' -sive-assessjpent of their personal skills and qualities. Cemmenting on the federation’s discussion document, “Secondary Education and the Path to Work,” he said that many young people were seriously disadvantaged in the competition for work because of the lack of a usable and marketable assessment of their abilities. The federation was concerned at the large number of school leavers who, because they had not succeeded in a curriculum dominated by the requirements of University Entrance, were branded as having no skills. It did not accept that anyone left school without some skill or talent. Yet the schools continually failed to assist them to identify their abilities. The federation did not want schools to equip students with specific job, skills, Mr Duncan said. Rather, it wanted a general vocational education recognised as an important component in general schooling. The schools

could, provide a wide range of vocational skills within the curriculum which would help students compete for entry into.their chosen employment . ’ ' / J i Mr' Duncan; emphasised that schools were not responsible' for Unemployment .nor for ensuring'-that school leavers found jobs. “But'unless we devise a system whereby those who do not gain academic credentials can get skill-based credentials then the unemployment 3ueues will .continue to be ominated by the young.”

The federation’s discussion document calls for a formal review of the curriculuth and assessment procedures in secondary schools “as soon as practicable,’’.and recommends the establishmehtof a Secondary School Board of Studies within the Education Department to enable lay participation in the central education administration.