A new study, backed by Bear Grylls, has found that employers are struggling to find young people with the life skills to succeed in a workplace, with 61% reporting a lack of emotional resilience and 45% reporting a lack of teamwork skills.
According to new research from Demos, recruiters are reporting a “double skills gap” with 60% struggling to find the right technical skills and 50% saying they can’t find the transferable skills they need, such as leadership and teamwork.
The report, for which TV Bear Grylls wrote the forward, recommendations are greater government support for community-based extracurricular activities to make sure they are accessible to all children, regardless of socioeconomic background.
Here Bear Grylls, Chief Scout, writes exclusively for The Mirror about how opportunities to develop resilience, teamwork and leadership skills should be “available to all” to protect today’s young people who are under “more pressure than ever”....
Why our young people need skills for life (and not just an A-level)
‘You may turn over your papers now…’
These are words that strike fear into the hearts of thousands (not least me).
Exam season is looming for generation of teenagers. The media will soon be full of stories of academic glory and disappointment in equal measure. As happens every year, the great and the good will obsess over GCSE and A-level results as the key measure of academic success.
But so often, the young adults who choose other routes outside of these so-called academic gold standard are forgotten and ignored.
Of course academic routes matter, but not for everyone. My education, the moments I really learnt who I am and what I’m capable of, were not in a classroom. They were outdoors discovering the world.
There are countless career paths that are open to us. And not all of these are tied to academic success. Think about musicians, artists and those who want to work with their hands. Not to mention the kids who want to spend every waking hour exploring all that the outdoor world has to offer. I was one of them. Still am.
Yet despite this, we too often fail to look for imaginative solutions when it comes to tackling some of the biggest challenges facing us, such as youth unemployment.
In the first quarter of 2023, the youth unemployment rate in the UK was 10.8%, compared to 3.7% for all UK adults. The cost of youth unemployment to the UK economy over the next decade has been estimated at £28 billion.
Yes, these are enormous costs, but I’d urge those in power to resist the temptation to double down on outdated perceptions of education.
Instead, now’s the time to recognise the sheer scale and diversity of learning outside the classroom and the wider training opportunities available to young people.
This is where extra-curricular activities come in, including one I happen to know quite a lot about: Scouts.
For over 100 years, Scouts has prepared young people with skills for life. We help young people step up, speak and dream big. We raise aspirations and give them those vital opportunities. Other out of school activities can do this too, of course.
Demos’ latest report on skills and youth employability therefore comes at a vital time. The reports tells us too many young people growing up in Britain are ill-prepared for today’s workplace. Like me, they recognise that at the heart of this problem lies a lack of transferable skills, such as resilience, teamwork and leadership skills. These matter so much.
These are the skills that make all the difference, and yet are also the most challenging to develop. Maybe that’s why 57% of employers say they value transferable skills over technical skills when it comes to hiring.
They’re the kind of skills you only gain when you’re given opportunities to challenge and stretch yourself – when you have the courage to reach out of your comfort zone (I call it the ‘comfort pit’ = it’s so easy to get trapped there) to learn and grow.
There are some stark headlines in this report. 61% of employers said they struggle to hire young people with emotional resilience. Meanwhile 45% of employers said they struggle to hire young people with sufficient teamwork skills
However another clear message emerges too. Those who get the opportunities to take part in these out of school activities are better prepared for the future. It’s heartening to see that over half of former Scouts felt they were ready for the world of work. 53% of Scouts alumni said they were prepared for starting work for the first time compared with 37% of people who did not attend extra-curricular activities when they were younger.
That was certainly the case for me. It was Scouts, climbing and adventure that helped me discover who I was, and what I could do. I know for sure the qualities like kindness, courage and never giving up didn’t all come from the classroom. It’s expeditions, community projects and volunteering where these are forged. When it comes to the qualities that really matter, mud and rain have just as much a part to play as whiteboards and PowerPoints.
The world of work and society is changing so rapidly, especially in this age of AI. Our young people are under more pressure than ever to have the right skills and experience to help them succeed – while protecting their mental health and wellbeing.
Our challenge now is to make these skills and opportunities available to all, and from every background. Let’s make the best possible use of these insights. They make a compelling case for widening access to the power of skills learned outside the classroom. Doing so would create real change – for the next generation and a stronger society.
Bear Grylls OBE
Chief Scout
