RSSeNEWS to be determined...

See Schools leave young unfit for work(Times Online article, 14 October 2009)

It is reported that the Chief Executives of the nation's largest employer, Tesco; also Asda and according to the CBI, BT Group Plc and GlaxoSmithKline have bemoaned low standards in school. They believe that education system leaves it to employers to pick up the pieces and that British students are less "marketable" than their European counterparts, that they "struggle to do simple maths" and that the value of A-level skills has been devalued.

One of the basic skills they are concerned about is 'numeracy' (and accompanying "communication" skills). We would always be interested in these views but why are they so important to us right now?

The RSS is planning a 10-year (November 2010-November 2020) campaign which will focus on raising the statistical literacy of society as a whole: students and teachers (in all phases), employees and employers from government to manufacturing to business, and a wide range of users of statistics including a strong focus on the citizen user, and the media. Employers will become an even higher priority audience for us under the planned campaign.

We will want to measure how much positive impact we can have on the school to workplace transition across the 10 years the campaign runs. What employers are saying now about their perceptions of school leavers' skills gap is, therefore, of great interest to us as we develop the framework for our campaign.

With a view to building up our already strong case for the campaign, there is now a Statistical Literacy Commentary forum on this site which will support a developing repository for coverage of statistical literacy in the media and in public domain reports/other documents.

Key commentary/thinking we would like to capture will be from employer and educational institutions, parliament and a wide-range of opinion formers - a lot seem to have views! - on current levels of statistical skills, numeracy and mathematical ability, also the school/university to workplace and cross-professional skills gaps. Additionally, the all-important citizen-user angle - when and how the 'man in the street' is disadvantaged by not having the skills to interpret/use data and think statistically.

All links, excerpts, clips you are able to share, along with you own thoughts and commentary will be very welcome.