To your Attention

Education system is producing a generation of "unemployable" school leavers who lack even the most basic skills to survive in the workplace, a new survey has found.
More that half the 4,000 of employers who took part in the survey by the Forum for Private Business (FPB) assessed the standard of literacy, numeracy and oral skills of school leavers they recruited as 'poor' or 'very poor.'
"Our survey amounts to a condemnation of education system, which is, self-evidently, turning out school leavers who are socially inept and unprepared for the world of work," said Len Collinson, National Chairman of the FPB.
The study showed that, as far as school leavers' life skills are concerned, almost half of employers felt their young recruits' timekeeping was poor, and more than a quarter thought the general courtesy of school leavers towards colleagues and customers was equally dismal.
Three-quarters of employers rated school leavers' ability to properly address a letter as either 'poor or very poor', and almost two-thirds were equally damning of ex-pupils' ability to take a simple telephone message.
"School leavers all know their rights, but do not consider their responsibilities," said Ann Pinnington, managing director of a plastics manufacturer based in Wrexham.
"They lack presentation skills and do not take their appearance into consideration. They need to learn a few simple things such as manners, courtesy, respect for others, a willingness to start at the bottom, and, most important of all, how to spell."
They are ignorant, illiterate, innumerate, bad mannered and want everything handed to them on a plate
As another respondent pointed out, "qualifications are so invalidated that many employers now have the additional task of making their own assessment of any applicant, irrespective of their apparent qualifications."
Other employers said they were horrified by the decline in educational standards.
"As an ex-teacher, I am horrified at the abysmal standards of school leavers that Britain is churning out," said Kate Owen, managing director of Opal Crafts Ltd, a London wholesale company.
"Bog standard schools are churning out pupils and leavers with low confidence, poor social skills and very poor educational standards. Our company does not consider taking them on."
"They are ignorant, illiterate, innumerate, bad mannered, want everything handed to them on a plate, and fall apart emotionally if they don't get what they want," complained another.
"The education system and the children who are going through it could benefit enormously from turning the clock back 40 years."
The FPB's Len Collinson said that employers wanted to see teachers and parents focus more on the basic 3Rs and essential 'life skills'.
"There should be a greater emphasis placed on teaching 'social skills', such as encouraging pupils to communicate clearly, instilling a modicum of respect for others, and promoting in them enthusiasm for a useful working life.
"Positive action like this could well be supported by parents and employers, who both have an interest in school leavers being better prepared for the world of work. We realise employers have to be engaged by education institutions."
In the meantime, however, the attitude of many employers was summed up by London restaurateur, Jeremy Rose.
" School leavers are not qualified for anything except getting drunk and not turning up for work."

SEE THE BEAUTY AND PROTECT IT

June 26, 2009--Captured during the Wild Wonders of Europe photography project, vibrantly colored European bee-eaters flit around Hungary's Puszta, a vast region of plains and wetlands, on May 12, 2008.By July 2009, 66 photographers will have scoured 48 countries to document European wildlife as well as to show that Europe is more countryside than concrete, organizers say.Many of the one hundred thousand images taken during the endeavor, which began in May 2008, will be shown in outdoor exhibitions across Europe starting in 2010."If we want these places and creatures to remain and flourish, we must inspire people to want to protect them," said Staffan Widstrand, project director for Wild Wonders of Europe, which was partially funded by the National Geographic Society's Expeditions Council, in a statement. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.) "We hope that we can connect them to the heritage of this continent and make them realize how much there is worth saving."
— Photograph courtesy Markus Varesvuo/Wild Wonders of Europe

Meat Free Monday

The Facts on a Plate
Most of us associate the climate crisis with oil companies, airports and car manufacturers. It's only recently that the globalized food system, which also relies on vast fossil fuel inputs at every stage, has been shown to produce as much as one-third of our total global greenhouse gas emissions. Livestock production is responsible for a significant proportion of these emissions.

On a global scale the meat industry generates nearly 1/5 of the man-made greenhouse gases (GHG's) that are accelerating global climate change, far more than transport. In the EU livestock production is responsible for 15% of GHG emissions and in the UK it is responsible for about 8.5%.
About 40 calories of fossil fuel energy go into every calorie of feed lot beef, as opposed to the 2.2 calories of fossil fuel energy which goes into producing one calorie of plant-based protein.
The estimated 634 gallons of fresh water required to produce one 5.2 ounce (147g) beef burger would be enough for a four-hour shower. For comparison, the same quantity of tofu requires 143 gallons of water to produce.
A low meat diet (defined as 70g of beef and 325g of chicken and eggs per week), as recommended by Harvard Medical School, can reduce how much we need to spend in tackling climate change - estimated to be around $40 trillion globally by 2050 - by 54%. Cutting out meat altogether or avoiding or avoiding ruminant meat (cows, sheep, goats) would cut the cost by 70%, and a vegan diet by 80%.

IMAGINE

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky

Imagine all the people
Living for today... I
magine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say
I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday
you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say
I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one