Adam Caller, founder of leading private tutoring company Tutors International, warns of the negative impact that the snowflake generation will have on the education sector for the coming decade

Amidst growing discussion of the ‘snowflake generation’ – defined by Collins Dictionary Online as ‘the generation of people who became adults in the 2010s, viewed as being less resilient and more prone to taking offence than previous generations’ – Tutors International founder Adam Caller has warned of the effect this phenomenon will have on the future of education in the next ten years. Mr Caller, who has worked in education for thirty years, cites standards at some universities over the past decade as a chief factor in the record numbers of teachers leaving the profession, as recorded in figures released by the Department of Education. [1] Educational consultant Mr Caller has spoken about the quality of applications made by many teachers of this generation seeking to transition to the private tutoring industry, noting that many applicants lack the skillset required to adapt to changing educational standards.

Mr Caller commented, “Whilst this is not the case for all applicants in this age group, I have seen a notable drop in the quality of private tutor applications in recent years as the graduates of questionable degrees issued in the past decade struggle to adapt to the rigours of a professional career. The reality is that school leaders have been increasingly pressured to appoint staff who are less experienced or able than they would like, not just because of a lack of applications but also because of the quality of the applicants. As per the definition of ‘snowflake generation’, these adults now working in the teaching industry are proving less resilient and more prone to seek a change of career. The underlying issue is the historical trend of issuing non-academic degrees with low barriers to entry, and this has resulted in a generation ill-equipped to deal with the pressures and requirements of teaching roles today.”

Looking to the future, Mr Caller believes that this situation will change for the next generation of would-be teachers coming through, with the introduction in England of new-style GCSE examinations which have been described as the most difficult exams since the end of O-levels in the 1980s [2] : “Now that we are seeing school examinations hardening up again, within five to six years I predict we will see university applications plummet as fewer students meet the more stringent entrance requirements at university today. The students that do successfully progress through a tougher education system will develop the resilience that the earlier snowflake generation have not, by and large, been instilled with. I predict that this will lead to a stronger workforce in the teaching industry, and a resurgence in the number of teachers staying in the profession for longer.”

ENDS

References

[1] Schools Week, ‘Highest teacher leaving rate in a decade’, June 2016

[2] BBC News, ‘New GCSES hardest since O-Levels’, August 2017