Britain threatened by 'an army of the unemployable'

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Mick Brookes, General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said advances in technology are set to slash the number of jobs available for unskilled workers, with potentially disastrous consequences for society.

He called for radical changes to primary education to allow young children to develop "fledgling" specialisms.

Speaking at the union's annual conference in Bournemouth, Mr Brookes said: "These young people, who have been denied the taste of success in their school careers, vote with their feet at the earliest opportunity.

"We cannot allow a whole army of the nation's youth to leave school with nothing to show for those 11 years except disaffections and resentment.

"The current number of unskilled jobs in this country is estimated at about three million today. The effects of technology may well mean a huge shrinkage of this employment market.

"When this happens, we will not simply have an army of the unemployed, we will have an army of the unemployable - a huge threat to social cohesion."

Mr Brookes said the government's plan for a new range of diplomas for teenagers must combine work-related and academic study and they must be a success.

If they are seen as qualifications for pupils who are not clever enough to do traditional academic GCSEs and A levels, secondary education would be split in to a system reminiscent of grammar schools and secondary moderns.

He continued: "Our primary children should be freed up from the narrow curriculum forced on them and able to develop fledgling specialised skills.

"We have a huge job to do in order to change a centuries old culture that adulates academic success and sneers at skills of the artisan.

"Young people who develop expertise in building, hospitality, catering or the travel trade deserve the same "applause" as those who go on from school to university," he said.

"We must introduce a new culture of respect for those who literally create the infrastructure on which our lives revolve," he said.