Young people missing out on the skills they need to succeed in the workplace

At a Yorkshire Post round table debate, sponsored by law firm Irwin Mitchell, a group of nine businessmen and women drew up a wish list for how they think the Government should support economic productivity through skills and education.

Reducing bureaucracy was top of the list for most of the group.

Michael Longden, associate director at Irwin Mitchell, said: "I did a recent study for a client – a further education college – and we found that of the total income the further education college received, something like 11 per cent of it was spent on administration and a large proportion of that was spent on proving that the money that the college received was actually spent on the things that the Government directed the college to spend the money on.

"One hopes that things will simplify going forward because as a society we can no longer afford that kind of indulgence."

Simplifying the education curriculum was also highlighted as an issue.

Samantha Brook, vice-president of human resources at natural chemicals company Croda, based in Snaith, near Goole, said: "We've got to get back to the core subjects and then you can build on into any different function and discipline. Subjects are too specialised at the moment."

The group also warned that schools, colleges and universities were failing to equip students for a working life.

Steve Fletcher, head of retail at Yorkshire Bank, said: "I don't think you can have the fully-delivered model into your business but if you get the raw material, you can chip it into shape."

He added: "Universities are failing the people because what they're actually doing is not preparing them for life, they are preparing them for passing exams."

Cat Yaffe, director of School Speakers, a Wakefield-based company which hires out speakers for schools, said: "The overwhelming thing that I find is that schools have no commercial reality.

"They don't know how the business world works and yet we are expecting the teachers to teach the students the skills that they don't have. For me, it's a question of who teaches the teacher?"

Mrs Brook, pictured right, said Croda had found it easier to attract employees over the last two years but added that the quality of graduates appeared to have fallen in the last decade.

"There's a real lack of initiative. We're also finding that graduates are coming out with the same class of degree but they're not performing at the same standard in our numerical reasoning tests," she said

Nick Bates, partner at Irwin Mitchell, said: "The law would probably be one of the areas where one would say that the practical teaching of it has improved over the last few years, yet the standard of candidates coming out from those courses has not improved."

Jeff Morris, regional managing partner at the executive recruitment firm Odgers Berndtson, said UK businesses struggle to recruit the same calibre of senior executives as some other European countries and the US.

"It's partly cultural and partly about supply and demand and also the way universities, schools and colleges interact with businesses," he said.

Training can be one of the easiest things for local authorities to cut when faced with a spending squeeze.

Tom Riordan, chief executive of Leeds City Council, said: "It's very difficult, politically, to justify spending money on the leaders of your organisation if you're shutting a library or a day care centre."

However, he added it was important to remain optimistic about what the education system had already achieved.

Richard Wright, acting chief executive of Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, said it was vital to plan ahead when training staff.

He said: "We profess we are going to become a country that competes on an international level on skills and technical added value but we need to be anticipating what we need five years from now, not talking about today's problem."

Yorkshire Bank no longer has its own graduate training programme, but Patricia Matheson, human resources business partner for retail banking at the bank, said: "We would still want graduates to come into retail banking and move through the different areas of retail banking that we have. If they have got that bit of oomph they will fast track through that."

The abolition of the Train to Gain scheme which paid for staff training at private firms provides an opportunity to create a better system, according to Mr Morris.

"If Train to Gain and other initiatives are taken away, you're in a position where the providers of training and businesses can have a

direct dialogue about what each other wants and what they're going to pay for it," he said.

Round table discussion

Taking part in the Yorkshire Post round table event on education and skills, sponsored by Irwin Mitchell, were:

Nick Bates, partner at Irwin Mitchell in Leeds and Sheffield.

Samantha Brook, vice-president of human resources at natural chemicals company Croda, based in Snaith, near Goole.

Steve Fletcher, head of retail at Yorkshire Bank.

Michael Longden, associate director at Irwin Mitchell in Leeds and Sheffield.

Patricia Matheson, human resources business partner for retail banking at Yorkshire Bank.

Jeff Morris, partner at executive recruitment firm Odgers Berndtson

in Leeds.

Tom Riordan, chief executive of Leeds City Council.

Richard Wright, acting chief executive of Sheffield Chamber of Commerce.

Cat Yaffe, director of School Speakers, a Wakefield-based company which hires out speakers for schools.