Does anyone else find recent graduates very lacking in grammar and spelling skills?

[headtohead]

I manage a team where every year we have a graduate intake. It’s a technical role (think construction industry). All of these people put in decently written CV’s and interview well.

In a lot of cases though, when it comes to them starting the role it’s pretty clear that they are hopeless at writing simple emails. Their spelling and grammar is atrocious, they have no understanding of setting out a letter or a mail, they cannot use commas and full stops, nor do they use capitals at the start of sentences.

We need to write succinct, technically accurate replies to customers, they write as they would talk about the subject. ‘You can’t use that brick there’ - no explanation to customer of what the correct product is and why etc. Just like a child would write a sentence.

It’s not just the recent intake that are like this, I’ve noticed it over the last few years. I’m constantly rewriting their replies or helping them to word things in a better way. They totally reply on spellcheck but that will often change the word to something totally different but the writer simply does not see it as they don’t know how it’s spelled in the first place.

These are adults with good degrees, how did we lose so much written English ability? Is anyone else noticing this?

Not what you asked, but I suggest you include some kind of written task at interview stage.

Haha. So many errors in this post!

Because the vast majority of kids stop reading after primary. I teach teens and it's a losing battle.

This! Give them a piece of writing that’s littered with basic mistakes, and get them to write it out correctly.

@TeenToTwenties yes - I’ve had to write example emails for previous job interviews.

I noticed one typo in your post OP - reply instead of rely.

@TeenToTwenties yes - I’ve had to write example emails for previous job interviews.

I noticed one typo in your post OP - reply instead of rely.

A family member works for a large legal firm. There is much consternation about the lack of English skills from the graduate entrants, since the firm charge big money. So they suggested that AI might be utilised to set out correspondence. Only for at least three letters to go out with “Would you like me to help put that in less formal terms, or suggest other points that you might include?” etc.

I cannot comment on this year's graduates but I interviewed nine graduates in 2023 and was surprised at the low standard of their written word. The poor quality of their final year theses. Their lack of research of the role.

I gave up and employed a 27yo 3rd jobber instead.

There are couple errors in your post. Perhaps you need to proofread too. I noticed CV’s (shouldn’t have an apostrophe and reply instead of rely. My son’s a Chartered Engineer and his spelling is not great. He says if an Engineer can spell he studied the wrong subject! Seriously though I do agree with you.

Same here. Some of the emails I get from graduates look like they were written half-asleep on a bus. No capitals, no punctuation, no detail just a random sentence fired off and sent.
The CVs are immaculate and the interviews are great, so the potential is there. But once they start, it’s like… did nobody teach you how to write an actual email? I end up fixing everything. It’s frustrating because it’s basic stuff they should have before stepping into a professional job.

A couple of grating comma splices in that post

Tbh it’s been like this for many many years. I finished at one place 12 years ago, , the times we had to tell officers they could not email in text speak, they had to use written English correctly

absolute nightmare

Interestingly in some ways I think the Level 2 English Functional Skills is better preparation for work than the GCSE English Language. The FS has a higher proportion of marks for SPaG and explicitly checks understanding of writing formally v informally.

It's couple of errors, not couple errors.

And when you open brackets you need to close them, otherwise the first becomes nonsensical.

I am not in the habit of correcting people but you were very quick to correct the OP

Touché

As per previous posters - there are a few errors in the OP's post which demonstrates that mistakes happen.

I do agree though. I work in education and the standard of spelling and grammar does seem to have tanked over the last few years. Possibly due to spellcheck facilities that correct as we type?

I think we're all guilty of the odd typo or spelling/grammar faux pas here and there but yeah, it's definitely something I've noticed.

There is a difference between a typo and being incapable of communicating properly. I agree that employers should include a written assignment at interview, even just a quick email advising a client of a meeting or something trivial, just to see that they use proper sentence structure and are courteous. I also think poor phone manner can be an issue. It's on the employer if they don't look for the right people. Some young people have excellent communication skills.

This is Mumsnet though- the op isn’t being paid to post on here!

I get it OP. I teach secondary school and I would only feel confident in the top 10% from my average comp in Y10 and 11 being able to write a decent email.

There is an absolute lack of critical thinking and being able to work things out for one’s self. They would need a paragraph structure, sentence starters and a paragraph plan. Then they would need to guided through it.

From what I’ve seen over the last 10 years of recruiting, the best written English skills belong to non native speakers, probably because they are taught English grammar as part of learning the language! Grammar is an afterthought for most schools, they simply don’t have the time in the curriculum to teach it.

I agree it’s been like this for a while, when I moaned about having to rewrite reports I was meant to be checking and approving I got told that “engineers don’t write essays”. Well maybe not but I’d expect you to be able to summarise the problem and proposed technical solution in coherent sentences!!

I’d be interested in seeing the OP attempt such an exercise.

"I do agree though. I work in education and the standard of spelling and grammar does seem to have tanked over the last few years. Possibly due to spellcheck facilities that correct as we type?"
Yes indeed, and the fact that people think that once they have run the spellchecker that is all that's needed. It most certainly is not.
The best check is the 'second pair of eyes' method because even the best of us might find it difficult to spot our own mistakes. Failing that if people just read their piece of writing again reasonably carefully before sending this would catch at least some spelling errors, punctuation fails, typos, etc.
Fo myself, I can spell very well but am a shit typist. So apologies in advance if you spot an error but it will be down to my typing.
(I did learn the correct way many years ago but I had already started work as a journo using the 'hunt and peck' two finger method and it's very hard to unlearn. This was standard in our newsroom, btw, we banged way at a furious speed with two fingers on old Royal typewriters, often with a fag hanging out of the corner of your mouth too.)
Ex chief sub here.

I'm a primary school teacher and my colleagues can barely spell. The English lead recently spelt 'drawer' as 'draw' multiple times in an email. Just a few months ago the headteacher wrote me a note with 'intrest' instead of 'interest'.

We are now starting to see the results of 14 years of Tory education policy.

My daughter's primary school headteacher has appalling spelling and grammar. The communication from the school office is even worse.