Clearing my mother’s garage a few years ago, I stumbled across a file fat with letters addressed to me. Spanning a period in the early 1990s when I was an English literature undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh, they are (on the whole) rejection letters from newspapers and magazines that I had applied to for summer work- experience. Typed letters on weighty GSM paper, or indeed handwritten cards, from editors, and managing and deputy editors, at The Sunday Times, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, the Daily Express, Vogue, The Face, the TLS, the London Review of Books (I have no memory of being so enterprising)... the list goes on.
They are all handsigned and include the script of literary and journalistic luminaries such as Ferdinand Mount, Rosie Boycott, Glenda Bailey, Miriam Gross, Sheryl Garratt and Maggie O’Farrell. Some are short and sweet, some go into immense detail about why there are no vacancies at present. They are all personal, they are all encouraging. There is not one whiff of ‘computer says no’ from an anonymous HR apparatchik.
Why do I mention this? Because I can’t stop thinking about the gulf between then and now. And yes, I know 30 years is a long time, but how did we get here? Our daily news is now stuffed with stories of graduates sending out hundreds of job applications into the maw of remorseless technology and failing to get even an acknowledgement. Yes, I was rejected, but an actual person took the time to read my letter, reply to it, hand sign it, and put it in the post. I wasn’t just ignored by a machine.
How young people thrive in the age of AI is something we address in this issue. The challenges that schools face in preparing young people for the world of work or ensuring they have the AI literacy needed to succeed in an uncertain future. I feel more optimistic than I did before working on this edition, however; our education leaders and our schools are so alive to the threat. Those working on the frontline know that the skills needed more than ever by students are the most human ones: judgement, critical thinking, a rich hinterland of knowledge and personal real-world relationships.
AI has the potential to cause major disruption, but I think an increasingly automated world is driving a thirst for human connection and I feel more certain than before that we will prevail. I just wish today’s graduates could have their own pile of rejection letters to look back on in 30 year’s time.
I hope you enjoy this issue.
Amanda Constance is the editor of The Week’s Independent Schools Guide. Read the full publication below or click here.