Joined-up thinking

'School System "Shameful" Says CBI Boss'. The Confederation of British Industries is basically all the overpaid Tory scum you might imagine. They mostly went to private schools, and those who didn't are inordinately proud of the selfishness and greed which elevated them into the company of those who did. They certainly don't send their kids to state schools, so have no commitment to improving it.

Their latest report says that the education system is rubbish. I'd certainly say it has problems, but most of those problems are derived from decades of governments grovelling to employers who want us to produce docile work units willing to accept poor treatment and low pay.

However, the CBI is an important body. Its members are presumable intelligent and successful. They must know what they're talking about, mustn't they? They've written a report and it's on nice shiny paper.

Er, up to a point, Lord Copper. Amidst details on how businesses aren't recruiting graduates at the moment (sorry, student readers) from another report, is this little gem:

The survey also revealed that some firms did not understand the differences between A-levels and degrees. Thousands of graduates may be being overlooked, the poll showed, as almost a third – 29% – of businesses think A-levels are graduate-level qualifications, while 18% think GCSEs are equivalent to a degree.