Dear Upper-Sixth Class of 2020,
I wanted to say how much I have felt for you ever since Covid-19 struck in March, when your time at school effectively ended. Not to have had the satisfaction of finishing your subjects off with exams in the summer term, not to have had the chance to say farewell to the friends you have built up over so many years, not to have been able to say goodbye to the school, your teachers and other staff, and not have been able to celebrate together has all been a bitter blow.
I have some understanding, I hope, of what you might have been feeling, based on my experience as head of two schools, Brighton College and then Wellington College, and now running the University of Buckingham. There is no way around it: you have been denied something that no earlier generation missed out on, not even during the Second World War.
But at the same time, I feel extraordinarily optimistic for you as a generation. The way that your year responded at schools across the country was deeply impressive. You simply got on with it and made the most of the opportunities. Others might have put their heads down and given up, but you didn’t, which is exactly why I’m so optimistic and excited for you. Let me explain.
My experience of life is that it is hard, but uncertainty is ever-present, and the assurances we seek that all will be well cannot be given. The people who really succeed in life are those who are resilient, resourceful and get on and make the most of it.
Oddly, it can be those who won all the prizes at final speech day, and who sailed through their senior school, who find life at university and beyond tricky. You may not hear much about the challenges they face, but young people in their 20s have been experiencing unparalleled difficulty in their lives. What is needed to be on top is a can-do, upbeat and positive attitude, a determination to make the most of life and a refusal to be cowed by the difficulties that it chucks at you.
Your lives will be so much more complicated than those of your parents and grandparents, many of whom went straight into a job from school or university, and stayed in that profession doing pretty much the same kind of thing for the rest of their working lives. The new life will be so different, and Covid-19 has only accelerated the pace of change.
The winners will be those who see problems as opportunities, and challenges as hurdles to be jumped over.
The three factors which will dominate your working lives will be digitalisation and AI, climate change and the drive for a more inclusive and fairer society. Let me say a few words about each of these.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is already changing the nature of many jobs, meaning that the secure posts in the professions will no longer be there. AI will be able to perform the skills of the financier, the lawyer and the medics quicker, more reliably and accurately than human beings. We can’t fight this coming revolution – all we can do attune ourselves to it.
The good news is there will still be jobs in the future. But they will be different, and will require different skills. An example. Ask anyone 10 years ago which job required a higher level of skill – flying a commercial airliner or looking after passengers in the cabin? I don’t even need to give you the answer. Ask in 10 years’ time and the answer will again be obvious. It is the human skills that need honing and developing, and these are the skills that you have.
Climate change will affect everything from travel to home and jobs in the new green economy and society. Those trained in universities of old will find it much harder to adapt than your generation entering university this year or next. You will have change baked into your entire way of thinking.
Thirdly, we have a Conservative Government under Boris Johnson that is determined to effect the biggest regional and social redistribution of income and opportunity the country has seen since the government of 1945-50. Black Lives Matter equally underlines that change has to come. Flexible, progressive and compassionate thinkers are required, and flexible, progressive and compassionate thinkers you are.
The real icing on the cake is that universities will be desperate to get you on board this autumn, not least because you are the last small year group nationally for 10 years, and there will be much more pressure for university places in years to come when the numbers of 18-year-olds in Britain begins to rise again.
You’ve proved what an adaptable, upbeat and go-getting year group you are by the way you responded to the chopping of your final year. These are precisely – precisely – the skills that are needed. That is why I am so optimistic for you.
Sir Anthony Seldon, Vice-Chancellor of University of Buckingham and previously Head of Brighton and Wellington Colleges.