An informative article on employment and education issues in the UK. Unfortunately, its tone is rather negative.
In reply, I would say that there will always be faults in the educational and political system. Our task should be to focus on the positive and constructive trends, which certainly DO exist, and to build on these.
(Highlighting is mine.)

From The Sunday Times

February 21, 2010

Schools are churning out the unemployable

by Harriet Sergeant

The latest unemployment figures are a shocker. Eight million adults are "economically inactive". That means one in five people of working age does not have a job. A new and expanding group, poignantly described as "discouraged" workers, have even given up looking.

They are right to be discouraged but wrong that there is no work. A report out on Friday points out that a fifth of firms and a quarter of employers in the state sector are still hiring — despite the recession. Except they are taking on migrant workers — not our home-grown "discouraged" variety.

The managing director of a medium-sized IT company explained why. High-flyers — Oxford and Cambridge graduates — are still as good as any in the world. His problems come when he tries to recruit middle management. Last year he interviewed 52 graduates — all educated in state schools. On paper they looked "brilliant students". Each had three As at A-level and a 2:1 degree. He shook his head. "There's a big difference between people passing exams and being ready for work."

This was obvious even before the interview began. Of the 52 applicants, half arrived late. Only three of the 52 walked up to the managing director, looked him in the eye, shook his hand and said, "Good morning." The rest "just ambled in". When he asked them to solve a problem, only 12 had come equipped with a notebook and pencil.

The three who had greeted him proved the strongest candidates and he hired them. Within a year they were out because of their "lackadaisical" attitude. They did not turn up on time; for the first six months a manager had to check all their emails for spelling and grammar; they did not know how to learn. It was the first time they had ever been asked to learn on their own. Their ability to "engage in business" was "incredibly" disappointing and "at 5.30 on the dot they left the office".

This year the managing director has joined the 20% of companies recruiting overseas. "We are an English company but we have no English staff. It's just too much trouble," he said.

It is the same story with employers at every level in the UK. Sir Terry Leahy, the chief executive of Tesco, put it bluntly. Too many children have been leaving school after 11 or 13 years of compulsory education "without the basic skills to get on in life and hold down a job". He said 5m adults were functionally illiterate and 17m could not add up properly. "On-the-job training" cannot act as a "bandage or sticking plaster" for "the failure of our education system".

A CBI survey revealed that literacy and numeracy were not the only problems. More than 50% of employers complained that young people were inarticulate, unable to communicate concisely, interpret written instructions or perform simple mental calculations.

This goes a long way to explain why, of the 1.7m jobs created since 1997, 81% have gone to foreign workers. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) agrees with Leahy. UK citizens are on the dole because of "issues around basic employability skills, incentives and motivation". It is a pity it has not passed that insight on to the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

The DWP has made it clear: work is where the inflated claims for our state education finally hit the buffers. At every stage we have a system in which the expediency of politicians and the ideology of the educational establishment take precedence over the interests of pupils. ...

Read the full article here.

MONGOLIA: Extreme, crippling weather conditions - a foretaste of things to come worldwide?

Asia extreme cold

Last reviewed: 29-02-2008

WORST WINTER IN DECADES

The worst winter weather in decades brought brutal temperatures and deadly snowstorms to swathes of Central Asia and China in early 2008, knocking out power supplies, crippling transport and destroying crops. Freak cold and snow across the southern half of China killed more than 100 people, affected some 100 million others and caused $15.4 billion of direct economic losses. Blizzards brought down houses, destroyed crops and created the country's worst ever power crisis as storms toppled pylons and ice on rail tracks halted coal deliveries. Thick ice and hail even hit parts China's subtropical south, while two central provinces recorded their coldest weather in 100 years. In Afghanistan, icy temperatures killed several hundred people and about 40,000 cattle. Aid groups say the cold weather affected more than two-thirds of provinces in and rendered parts of the central region inaccessible in January. Neighbouring Turkmenistan, seeking to emerge from decades of isolation, sent an aid package comprising fuel, food and clothes to northern Afghanistan. As spring promised to bring welcome relief from the cold, millions of Afghans faced the risk of seasonal floods brought on by melting snows. Tajikistan, paralysed by its coldest winter in a quarter-century, asked for emergency international aid to help it survive an energy crisis that has left millions of people without power and heating. U.N. experts say the harsh winter underscores the need for governments to build infrastructure that can withstand previously unthinkable weather. "So-called freak weather is becoming more common, and reducing vulnerability to unexpected extremes must be a top priority for governments," says Salvador Briceno, head of the U.N's disaster relief agency, ISDR. China's Meteorological Administration says the snow and cold probably developed out of a La Nina - or low sea-surface temperatures - in parts of the Pacific in the second half of last year combined with unusual weather from the west.

Source: http://www.alertnet.org/db/crisisprofiles/AS_COLD.htm

N. Korea famine, once again

North Korea hunger

Last reviewed: 10-07-2008

THE SECRET FAMINE

North Korea has spent more than five decades cut off from the world. It is so secretive that no one knows how many people died in its famine of the 1990s, although analysts have estimated it killed 3-5 percent of the population. Now it faces another humanitarian crisis after a poor harvest that has caused food prices to skyrocket.

Up to 6 million in need of help

Hit by floods and rising prices

Relies heavily on international aid The Stalinist state has in recent years depended on aid from China, South Korea and United Nations agencies to feed millions of people. It blames natural disasters for its hunger woes but observers say catastrophic economic mismanagement is also responsible. Agricultural experts warn that North Korea faces its worst food shortfalls since the 1990s famine with high grain prices, flood damage from 2007 and political wrangling with South Korea taking their toll. The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) has estimated up to 6 million people need help. In mid-2008, the United States began its first bilateral assistance to North Korea in eight years after Pyongyang agreed to relax restrictions on aid agencies' ability to monitor distribution. Delivery of the aid will be overseen by the WFP and five aid agencies. South Korea has traditionally provided major food aid to the North. But the flow stopped when President Lee Myung-bak took office in early 2008. He says aid should be dependent on how well the North abides by an international nuclear deal. Food shortages and human rights abuses have prompted tens of thousands to risk their lives trying to escape across the border into China.

KEY FACTS

Total population	23.9 million (Source: U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, 2006)
Famine death estimates	220,000 (Source: Democratic People's Republic of Korea's government, DPRK) 2.5 million (Andrew Natsios, former head of the U.S. Agency for International Development) 600,000 - 1 million (Marcus Noland, Institute for International Economics) No estimate ever given by World Food Programme (WFP)
Chronic malnutrition under six years old	37 percent (DPRK/UNICEF/WFP, 2004)
Grain deficit	1.4 million tonnes (Source: Korea Rural Economic Institute, 2007)
Total targeted by WFP country operation	1.9 million people (Source: WFP)
Total targeted by WFP flood response in 2007	215,000 people (Source: WFP)
WFP donors for North Korea	United States, Japan, South Korea, European Union, Australia, Italy, Germany, Canada, Sweden, Russia, Ireland and Norway.
North Korea's military spending	15.9 percent of budget (Finance Minister, 2005)

Source: http://www.alertnet.org/db/crisisprofiles/KP_FAM.htm