It was always thus. The Guardian newspaper reports that “survey of 3,000 employers in Greater Manchester in 2023 raised concerns that young recruits were missing “essential life skills” like empathy, time management, speaking to customers, problem-solving and critical thinking.

They go on to say that” Ranote, the chair of Higher Health’s UK body, said companies were reporting that young recruits struggled with “face-to-face interviews, speaking on the phone – things that we took for granted”.

Data suggested gen Z had fewer “everyday but essential” communication skills than older generations, Ranote said, largely due to the advent of social media.

And the spokesperson for Renate pronounced: “That is, without a shadow of doubt, the single biggest social cultural change of our time … their whole way of communicating is different to what ours was.”

Excuse my cynicism, born of long years working in vocational education and training. I seem to remember in the early 1990s a survey of employers in Bristol saying that young people lacked communications kills and were poor at timekeeping. And the prescription of so called ‘soft skills’, seemingly from studies by studies by Harvard and Stanford Universities, has been going on for ever. Mind, the statement that “the traditional education system … it’s all about hard skills” and “the world, as it is changing, is wanting a holistic youth, a person who is mental health strong” seems a bit odd. At least there is no mention of AI! But personally, if I have to call out a plumber, I’d like them to have some hard skills.