British Council finds fault with British youth. Maybe.

The British Council has produced a report which warns that the UK risks losing global competitiveness, and reportedly concludes that the failure of its young people to adopt “a global outlook”, to have “wider horizons”, and develop "international awareness” means that many will be condemned to unemployment or low-paid jobs. Reading this news item on the BBC we ordinary folk might be tempted to conclude that the younger generation just doesn’t do foreign and in consequence will be stuck doing “mcjobs” for all eternity.

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? The BBC report goes on to say:

Jo Beall, British Council director of education and society, said "This research shows that while British students are extremely keen to gain international experiences, there aren't enough of the right opportunities for them to gain the professional skills that British employers really value”.

which, with its clear implication that there is nothing at all wrong with young people’s attitudes, since they are “extremely keen to gain international experiences”, would appear to be a rather different conclusion. The British Council has apparently succeeded – in a way a bit like their much vaunted claims to increased efficiency - in producing a report which says one thing and proves another.

Comments

[Jane]

Yep, more money wasted on another fatuous report! Nothing said about the years of not teaching foreign languages at schools and universities closing down their foreign language departments because of, well, no students applying because there presumably weren't 'enough of the right opportunities' to take French GCSE and A Level. Ooops, sorry, forgot, the BC is all about learning English, innit? How could they possibly comment on our own homegrown youngsters?

[David]

My guess is that having produced a report which apparently threw brickbats at the young and the schools, and unable to pull it because they had a co-sponsor, the British Council's Director of World and Evolution or whatever it is wants to distance the org from such a politically incorrect conclusion. Not least because they have their "Connecting Classrooms" and International Awards to think about. After all, if young people have narrow horizons then how come schools everywhere have been winning "prestigious awards" for internationalism?

[Mark]

I thought it was the British Council's job to promote international opportunities to British youngsters via Erasmus etc. Isn't it working?

British students' unwillingness to experience life abroad is being eroded by the increase in tuition fees; this problem could end up fixing itself.

[Neil Robertson]

Patronising British Council nonsense as you suggest ...
churned out in a week when for example Scotland has gone panda mad and Scottish women curlers won gold medals in the European Championship in Moscow (yon place whaar The Britsh Cooncil wisnae paying its taxes mind?) ! And I do wish the BBC would stop recycling all this British Council tosh and running nightly BC trailers

[Neil Robertson]

British Council really is an irrelevance in respect of the BRIC countries too these days .... http://www.scotlandoffice.gov.uk/scotlandoffice/16328.html