Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by the British Chambers of Commerce
About the British Chambers of Commerce
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) is the national body for a powerful and influential Network of 52 Accredited Chambers of Commerce across the UK; a network that directly serves not only its members businesses, but the wider business community.
Representing 100,000 businesses who together employ more than 5 million employees, the British Chambers of Commerce is the Ultimate Business Network. Every Chamber sits at the very heart of its local community, working with businesses to develop and grow.
British Chambers of Commerce Position
The British Chambers of Commerce welcomes this opportunity to give evidence on examination boards in the England. Whilst we do not have specific comments to make on the technicalities of the examination system, this is a useful opportunity to bring forward concerns that businesses have raised regarding exam procedures.
Recent research by the British Chambers of Commerce entitled “Skills for Business; More to learn” surveyed over 7,000 companies, and found that businesses lack confidence in the English education and training system, and particularly in qualifications.
Some of our key findings are:
Only 28.6% of 5,800 companies surveyed would be very or fairly confident in recruiting a school leaver with A-Levels or equivalent.
Low business confidence is largely the result of poor levels of soft skills in school leavers. This often includes poor levels of literacy, punctuality and ability to concentrate.
The education system works best when businesses are able to work closely with schools, colleges and the wider training system.
The BCC thinks the question being asked by the Committee is the wrong one. The salient question is not whether the current exam board system is maintained, combined to create a single board, or reformed to make boards more sector-specific. We believe that employers and educators must instead work together to create the most effective exam system.
Business confidence is proportional to employee size with larger businesses being more confident than smaller firms. However, only a minority (36.8%) of businesses with 250+ employees would be very or fairly confident in recruiting a school leaver with A-Levels or equivalent.
Only 20.1% of businesses with 1 to 4 employees would be very or fairly confident in recruiting a school leaver 23.5% of businesses with 5 to 9 employees, 32.6% of businesses with 10 to 49 employees and 35.5% of businesses with 100 to 249 employees.
The hotels, restaurants and leisure sector is the sector that has the most confidence in the education system however only a minority (37.4%) of businesses are confident in recruiting a school leaver with A-Levels or equivalent.
The marketing, media and research sector has the lowest levels of confidence with only 19% of businesses in this sector being confident in recruiting a school leaver with A-Levels or equivalent.
The BCC’s work with businesses—including focus groups, policy meetings and large scale surveys—suggests that companies do not see the education system in its current form as providing young people with the “employability” skills they require. Providing young people with a fundamental understanding of business and enterprise will serve them well in later life—and needs to be at the heart of the education system.
From our experience, education is most effective when businesses, schools, colleges and the wider education system work closely together. This engagement, however, must not simply be limited to work experience and school visits, but extended to wider business involvement throughout the education system, from the writing of curriculum to decisions on how qualifications should be awarded within the education system. This relies upon engagement with the exam boards.
Companies have not told us that they are concerned with whether exam boards are merged into one body, or whether bodies are divided into sector specific exam boards. Instead, they are worried about outcomes—and ensuring that they have an appropriate relationship with both the education system as a whole and with those that set and award qualifications in particular. The BCC argues that whether the Government decides to combine the current boards in one or maintain a multiple board system, there should be a single point of contact for businesses to engage, making it as simple as possible to create the most effective education system, producing highly skilled school leavers that can contribute to the economic growth of the UK.
November 2011