This section considers the Government's policy context on adult skills for sustainable communities before exploring the extent to which education for the 11-16 age-group might contribute towards it. However, the extent to which education at school is perceived primarily as a preparation for the workplace, by parents, employers and the learners themselves, is a much wider debate than possible here. In so far as geography contributes to understanding of the changing world of work, as well as how people live and play, it should recognise these issues concerning skills.
The Urban Task Force (1999) had argued that: 'The teaching in basic professional skills is excellent. The main problem is a lack of cross-disciplinary learning with a strong vocational element. The evidence is that it is generic rather than technical skills that are in short supply.'
The Egan Review (2004) concurred with this and suggested that, in addition to their technical competences, professional and practitioners dealing with the development of sustainable communities would indeed benefit from a number of what were called 'generic skills'. It is also argued that the delivery of sustainable communities could only be achieved if professionals and practitioners developed new ways of thinking and acting.
Source: ASC (2007) In a nutshell, Leeds: Academy for Sustainable Communities.
The Egan Review: skills for sustainable communities - definitions of generic skills. Read the Definitions of Generic Skills on the ASC website.
The Egan Review made the distinction between skills used in:
