There’s plenty of evidence that soft skills development in early years has a dramatic effect on…well, everything!
Graham Allen’s report concluded that early intervention can “reduce the costs of educational underachievement, drink and drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, vandalism and criminality, court and police costs, academic underachievement, lack of aspiration to work and the bills from lifetimes wasted while claiming benefits.”
Not much else can do that!
An earlier post laid out the scientist’s point of view:
The most productive strategy is through soft skills
James Heckman
But education is still heavily geared towards literacy and numeracy, with only a very passing nod at soft skills.
So today’s news that poor numeracy is “the hidden problem that blights the UK economy and ruins individuals’ chances in life.” (Sir Michael Rake) begs the question: could soft skills development help?