Watch my question about boosting socio-emotional teaching in UK schools

“It’s fundamental to actually promote vocational qualifications and have parity of esteem between them.”

That was part of the response the Director of Policy & Insights at the British Chamber of Commerce gave after I asked about the low levels of socio-emotional skills among England’s 15-to-16-year-olds.

Compared with other OECD countries, our 15-to-16-year-olds have below average socio-emotional skills, which include cooperation, control, and persistence.

What I liked most about Alex’s response is that he acknowledged employers feel that the current secondary curriculum is too focused towards academic achievements.

Judging from the data, this focus on academic attainment is having a negative knock-on effect in other areas of development.

Tilting the curriculum more toward applied learning is one solution to address this imbalance, but, as Alex notes in his response below, we first need to ensure vocational qualifications are viewed as being as important as academic ones.