The Education Secretary is worried that some young people may be missing out on learning opportunities following the rise of working from home.
Gillian Keegan said young people starting out in their careers want to be going into the office for work but they report that there is “virtually nobody there” following the pandemic.
Speaking at an event run by Bright Blue think tank on Monday, Ms Keegan said employees learn a lot from their colleagues and from “seeing meetings, seeing how things are done”.
When asked whether she was worried about young people not engaging and not learning from their seniors because they’re working from home, Ms Keegan told the event at the Multiverse office: “I do worry about that. Although I think it is shifting a little bit back to an equilibrium.
“I worry about that because I know a lot of young people who are just starting out in the workplace and that’s what they say. You can go into an office like this and there’s virtually nobody there.”
Ms Keegan added: “I think you do learn a lot from other people. And I think one of the things that a lot of people say as well in terms of productivity, creativity, that sort of group dynamic you do kind of get to the answer, you get to solving problems quite often better with a group.
“Particularly if you’ve got a good diverse group coming from different angles, different experience, it really does make it better I think for those people starting in their career.
“And lots of people, if you speak to those young people, they’ll say, ‘you know, that’s what I want. I want to be going to the office. I want the sort of going out after work stuff as well’.
“So it’s a big part of the journey and again it’s a big part of starting work. I think we have to get the balance right though.”
