Warning as pupils await GCSE grades

13 April 2012

More than 500,000 teenagers will receive their GCSE exam results as they wake up to warnings that failure to get the grades will make them "unemployable".

A survey of employers by the Learning and Skills Council warned that many youngsters would be destined for low-paid, unskilled jobs without decent grades.

And teachers' leaders said too many teenagers still leave school without mastering the basic skills that employers want.

The LSC questionnaire of 412 employers found that 22% would not recruit job-seekers with fewer than five C grades at GCSE or the vocational equivalent, and 15% said they would completely ignore CVs without these qualifications.

The LSC urged teenagers receiving their results to stay on in education and training rather than drop out if they get poor grades.

Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, called for reforms to the exams system.

She said: "We have a nation of hard working, highly ambitious and responsible young people. However, far too many students leave school at 16 without the skills or abilities to approach the rest of their lives with ambition and confidence.

"And the current school curriculum is not helping as it demotivates and demoralises too many students.

"Instead, we need to create an education system which encourages real learning and skills development, and moves away from a target culture which promotes teaching purely to pass tests."

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT union, stressed that teachers and pupils should be given credit for their hard-won achievements, not criticism. "There is no such thing as an easy option in public examinations," she said.

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