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The Education for Capability Manifesto

In 1979, the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) published the Education for Capability Manifesto, as a challenge to all with responsibility for delivering education.

There is a serious imbalance in Britain today in the full process which is described by the two words ‘education' and ‘training'. The idea of the ‘educated' person is that of a scholarly individual who has been neither educated nor trained to exercise useful skills; who is able to understand but not to act. Young people in secondary or higher education increasingly specialize, and do so too often in ways which mean that they are taught to practise only the skills of scholarship and science. They acquire knowledge of particular subjects, but are not equipped to use knowledge in ways which are relevant to the world outside the education system.
This imbalance is harmful to individuals, to industry and to society. A wellbalanced education should, of course, embrace analysis and the acquisition of knowledge. But it must also include the exercise of creative
skills, the competence to undertake and complete tasks and the ability to cope with everyday life; and also doing all these things in co-operation with others.
There exists in its own right a culture which is concerned with doing, making and organizing and the creative arts. This culture emphasizes the day-to-day management of affairs, the formulation and solution of problems and the design, manufacture and marketing of goods and services.
Educators should spend more time preparing people in this way for a life outside the education system. The country would benefit significantly in economic terms from what is here described as Education for Capability.