Schools don't teach life skills warns Charles: Prince says education system leaves youngsters unable to develop into successful adults

Prince Charles has attacked British schools for failing to install ‘character’ in pupils and making them virtually unemployable.
The Prince said the education system is leaving children bereft of vital life skills and unable to develop the confidence needed to develop into successful adults.
While conceding the importance of academic education, Charles stressed pupils need to be taught to cope with the world that awaits them if they were to have a chance of getting a job.

Prince Charles told business leaders at St James's Palace yesterday that the education system is leaving children bereft of vital life skills

The royal was speaking to business leaders at St James’s Palace yesterday, after a visit to a project which helps unemployed young people turn their lives around.
Speaking of the visit, he said: ‘What was being said is that life skills – which consist of developing self-esteem, self-confidence, looking people in the eye – all these things are not taught in schools or hardly at all.

 

‘What it seems we’re lacking is that element in educational process of character, alongside all the other bits and pieces which are of course important.
‘But if you can’t actually cope with the world out there, the kind of interaction that’s required of people, it is impossible it seems to me to manage, let alone to be employable.’

The royal attacked British schools for failing to install 'character' in pupils and making them virtually unemployable

Prince Charles arrives at Circle Sports in North London yesterday, an organisation which helps young people get the best of themselves

While conceding the importance of academic education, Charles stressed pupils need to be taught to cope with the world that awaits them if they were to have a chance of getting a job

Some within the educational establishment may find the comments inflammatory, but the Prince has long been a passionate supporter of youth opportunity initiatives through organisations such as his own charity, The Prince’s Trust.
But some observers will find irony in the speech coming after the emergence at the weekend of letters written by the Queen Mother, in which she begged for Charles, her grandson, not to be sent to Gordonstoun – a school in Scotland with a reputation for character-building – because she thought he would be unhappy.
Charles did go to Gordonstoun, which because of its Spartan regime he dubbed ‘Colditz in kilts’. One contemporary recalled that Charles was bullied ‘maliciously, cruelly and without respite’.
Earlier yesterday, the Prince visited Circle Sports, a not-for-profit community sports shop in a deprived area of Westminster which has an 80 per cent success rate in helping young develop skills to find work.
Tameima Khano, 24, is working with a large toy retailer after completing a training course.
She told Charles: ‘I had no confidence before I came here, I could not talk to people. I’m now able to communicate a lot better.’
Onlooker Julia Aguiar made the Prince laugh when she called out ‘Hello darling’ as he emerged from the shop and asked whether he had tried any trainers on.
‘Why, certainly not!’ joked Prince Charles, after which the crowd of members of the public erupted with laughter.

British schools are failing to install 'character' in pupils, according to the prince