In Focus: Cameron blind to a dirty little secret?
Insider's Ben Pindar asks if the Prime Minister should address the looming skills crisis before asking students to build their own businesses.
I had the rare privilege of interviewing our Prime Minister David Cameron the other day and was impressed by his fervent passion for entrepreneurialism and the role it will play in the recovery of our nation.
However, I couldn't help but feel the passionate rhetoric he is delivering at an array of events around the country is papering over a dirty little secret that the PM is keen to avoid.
In recent weeks, one of the biggest concerns business leaders have been talking to me about is the serious decline in the standards of skills and, most importantly, life skills.
The problem may not yet be grabbing the headlines, but there is a growing swell of discontent among employers and the issue was quick to rear its head as I spoke to a group of business owners at the event featuring Cameron.
The bosses spoke of their battle to recruit quality staff, their fears for an education system that has lost its way and they shared scare stories of employees who left school not knowing how to dress, shake hands or even understand an alphabetical filing system.
One even described how a major supermarket chain had recently sent a small army of minimum wage workers on a one-month course to give them the basic skills they needed to operate in a socially-acceptable manner on the shop floor.
It's a frightening trend and I put their concerns to the PM. Sadly, he was quick to dismiss the issue saying: "There's a huge amount of ability in our country and lots of people have the drive and ambition we need."
His message is that "there's a business in everyone", but what the campaign fails to address is the lack of basic skills people need to run a business, win contracts, write invoices and – most importantly for our enthusiastic PM – fill out a tax return.
The government is calling on the private sector to create the jobs the country needs as it slashes public sector spending. However, the dialogue is only heading one way.
Business leaders are clamouring for the education system to be overhauled so they are provided with the raw materials they need to create employees who can drive their business forward and help the nation recover.
Enterprise is a fine ambition and it will be key to our nation's future, but perhaps Cameron should first introduce the concept to our schools rather than ask a student to try and build a business with blind luck?
