School and college leaders have called for children to receive employability skills training to prepare them for entering the workplace.

The Association of School and College leaders have called for students to be assessed on basic workplace skills such as punctuality, communication skills, team working, and honesty in addition to more traditional subjects.

The suggestions are designed to help schoolchildren develop key employability skills which will give them the basic abilities they need to be successful in the workplace. The extra training could be blended with existing subjects – for example, teaching presentation skills as part of traditional subjects like Geography.

The proposals come as a recent survey by the Chartered Management Institute showed 9 out of 10 employers found that school leavers entering the workplace required training in basic skills.