Jump to content

[BBC News] Youths taught workplace etiquette


Newsbot

Recommended Posts

The Junior Chamber of Commerce is launching a training module to teach school and college leavers what will be expected of them in the workplace.

 

It will cover communication, office etiquette, compliance with regulations and how to appeal to employers.

 

Looks like a good idea to me....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was interviewing and we had quite a few youngesters through the door who turned up with shirt tails hanging out, iPods hanging out of their ears and chewing gum," she said.

 

"They didn't seem to get the idea of what we were looking for.

 

I'm really sorry that they didn't do 'How not to be completely bloody thick' lessons when I was at school. I once turned up for an interview riding a unicycle and wearing a rotating bow tie with big shoes on. Nobody told me that this was not what a prospective employer was looking for ... how was I supposed to know???

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"I was interviewing and we had quite a few youngesters through the door who turned up with shirt tails hanging out, iPods hanging out of their ears and chewing gum," she said.

 

Apart from the chewing gum, that a pretty acurate description of me. And I've got a job - shows what she knows!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I once turned up for an interview riding a unicycle and wearing a rotating bow tie with big shoes on. Nobody told me that this was not what a prospective employer was looking for ... how was I supposed to know???

Try the government or civil service. That approach usually gets you on £50K plus, plus expenses, plus a couple of brown envelopes as an MHK.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I spoke to a local (finance) employer this week who expressed concern about the abilities of some of the teenagers leaving school locally. The specific concerns centered around the three 'R's. It's just difficult to take someone on who does not properly know how to write a letter and who needs a calculator to add up single digits.

 

The employer put the problem down to over reliance on the use of computers in schools. Schools love with ICT. However, I have my doubts especially when I hear these types of concerns.

 

The young people of Poland and other Eastern European countries are well educated, hard working and bi lingual. Recently I visited a friend in the north of England who told me that local (Yorkshire) employers refuse to employ their own people. They will, as a rule, take Eastern European immigrants. The young English are left rotting on benefit.

 

Far be it for me to lay criticism at the Manx education system which has an excellent reputation. However, this story is really concerning and the issue needs to be tackled.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whilst we know there are some lazy bad-mannered scrotes around who can't be bothered, there are also those who do actually want to do well. My children in particular. However, the transition between school & working in life is daunting. Even when I left school many many years ago, the working world was so different from anything I had experienced before. Having said that, my parents made sure I looked presentable before an interview but I knew the rest was up to me. I just don't think some of them know what an employer expects. Do they have mock interviews for those in their final years? Perhaps they should incorporate these into their 'work experience' weeks or career evenings??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Far be it for me to lay criticism at the Manx education system which has an excellent reputation.

Clearly it does not - rather it has an excellent reputation to be geared up to get people through the current examination system and meet the latest government targets, which are the main methods of comparison between schools these days.

 

Schools have always been very poor for preparing students for life in the real world, from: not teaching people enough about basic diet and nutrition, to understanding mortgages, insurances, endowments (which could knock 10/15 years off a mortgage if taken early enough), interest rates, APR and other calculations, as well as parenting skills and responsibilities and even punctuality etc.

 

Add to that the poor facilties available to children, and little wonder kids are seen as an alien race these days, who mostly grab the 'politics of fear' headlines - with people only willing to deal with the symptoms and not the root causes.

 

There are many success stories of course, but nowhere near enough and nowhere near what is possible. With so many recent generations being let down by their parents, the role of education as a 'supplement parent' needs to be considered more carefully IMO - because clearly we are all sufferring from this combination of educational and parental failure.

 

IMO, it's time to re-invent the whole system from top to bottom which - given the monies currently being thrown into the system as well as those systems designed to cope with the problems (police etc.) - achieves relatively little. This will be far more cost effective than people actually realise. For example I'd rather my taxes were spent on a youth club, than a lawyer taking some tyke through the courts or supplementing some scrounger on yoof benefits. I am not advocating the handing over of any parental reponsibilities here, only that clearly something needs to be done to deal with a generation brought up by numerous failed parents - and to educate the next generation of parents let down by their own.

 

We could start with the £40 million put aside for a runway extension we don't need.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find it quite ridiculous to judge a persons suitability for a job on what they wear or how they present themselves, I also find the majority of 'managers' to be half witted imbeciles in suits, so it kind of figures. More pointless jobs and seminars for more pointless people - who consider themselves to be ever so important.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...