Can't find the right staff? Employers who invest time at schools and colleges will find the next generation of talent is on their doorstep
For the past five years I've visited schools and hosted return visits at my restaurant Roast. I tell pupils about opportunities out there, about how a south London boy who did badly at school and became caught up in all sorts of trouble turned himself around and ended up owning a multimillion-pound business.
I used to be asked how much money I made, the sort of cars I owned, and which celebrities visited the restaurant. But these days the youngsters raise more pertinent questions such as how do they start their own businesses and, funnily enough, why did I get involved in the Prince's Trust.
A couple of months ago I spoke at an event called Skill! that was hosted by JP Morgan and attended by around 60 inner-London pupils with a desire to go into business. As I left, one of the youngsters asked me to mentor him in a business project. I gave him my card and asked him to mail me something about himself and his idea.
He wrote that night and told me how his father and brother were both long-term unemployed. "Sir, I do not want to be like that," he said. I was touched by his determination and I have begun mentoring him, but now I also wonder why it took this chance encounter for him to shape his ambition, and why his school had not been able to help him?
At school I ran a small business (OK, it was a gang) and we all spectacularly failed our O levels. The rest of the clan went off and secured jobs but my parents convinced me I wasn't thick and that I should resit the exams, so I did. I then applied to do A levels at a sixth-form college and when going for an interview, I was given my file and asked to wait to be called. Naturally, I opened the file and my school's careers officer had written that there was no chance I would pass the re-takes so the college shouldn't even bother talking to me about A levels.
But I did pass those O levels at the second attempt, I then secured A levels, wrote my first pamphlet at the age of 19 and later graduated from the London School of Economics.
Soon afterwards my old headmaster contacted me, saying that he had noted my successes and asked if I would become a governor of the school. I agreed on the one condition that the same careers officer who wrote that note was still in place. He was, and it turned out he was also the teacher representative on the board of governors. After the first meeting I took him aside and gave him a firm piece of my mind, asking how many people's lives he had ruined writing the sort of stupid references he gave me. In defence, he said he had not received any training for his role, which was, bizarrely, an add-on to his main job as a PE teacher.
Little seems to have changed since then in the importance of training people for life rather than for qualifications. Last year, my eldest nephew and his friends all received starred A levels, so I treated them to lunch and, apart from my nephew, none of them had any social skills or could account for themselves away from the grades they had received.
Historically, schools and colleges have failed to provide employers with people who possess basic skills—the ability to speak clearly, dress properly, look you in the eye, and turn up for interviews on time. I once asked a vice-chancellor of a university why it didn't include the teaching of soft skills or prepare students for the world of work. I thought his response might be that he didn't have the resources, but the reply was much worse; he didn't see such training as part of an academic institution's role.
So, with more spending cuts on the way, there's little likelihood that educational authorities will ever equip students with the attitudes and behaviour patterns employers are always seeking. The onus seems to falls on us in the business world. If, like me, you're running a growing organisation and find that a lack of people resources is holding you back, see if you can spend time connecting with local schools and colleges. This is the business case for David Cameron's Big Society.
Don't just lament the fact that you can't find the right people—go out and find your next generation of talent. It's probably closer than you think.
