What's wrong with being 'right on paper'?

My husband would make an incredible teacher. He didn't enjoy school much himself - having been written off and told to go and work in a bank by his own teachers. So he passionately believes that the impact you have on a child at school stays with them forever. He's worked with children for almost 20 years - they love him, and they listen to him. Recently a teacher approached him and convinced him of what I've always known: he'd make a great teacher. He met with the head of our local (Ofsted rated 'excellent') primary school who said that he would employ him in a heart-beat. 


So he got in touch with the local teacher-training university. And they rejected him point blank. For two reasons: 


1) They already had an overwhelming 10 applications per placement 
2) He doesn't have a C at GCSE science.


Let's set aside the distressing vision of aforementioned teacher-training-selection-officer drowning under the unmanageable weight of applications and focus on the second point: qualifications. Because, you see, my husband already works daily with two of that same university's current trainee teachers. 


One turned up for work recently looking like he'd rolled out of bed and announced to the Head of Department "I'm knackered mate". The other burst into tears after receiving feedback on her first lesson and hasn't been seen since. Presumably both have a C in GCSE Science and so are prime examples of world-class teaching talent. 


And this makes my blood boil.


Teachers have an unbelievable responsibility. So doesn't it follow that those who select the next generation of teachers have an even greater responsibility? To rule out an additional candidate because you already have 10 applications per place is lazy. To rule someone out because they have a Bachelor of Science degree but not GSCE Science is lunacy. To select instead people without the basic social skills and professionalism to gain respect from either adults or kids is, in my opinion, tantamount to dereliction of your professional responsibility. 


My brother's fiancee has been in and out of hospital roughly 8 or 9 times this year. She's had a nurse refuse to bring her anything she can eat, a nurse refuse her pain relief (on the grounds that its too expensive) and overheard a group of nurses gossiping about her. All have roughly the same qualifications and experience as the nurses who took excellent care of my best friend's mum when she had her hernia op. The difference? Attitude. One group of nurses think like nurses and treat their patients as human beings. The other think of patients as inconvenient generic bundles of symptoms. One group were destined to enter a caring profession. The other would probably be better off working in the warehouse at Argos. 


Last time you received bad service in a shop was it because the shop assistant didn't know how to use the till? Or was it because they would rather chat to their mate about their night out than tell you where the duvet section was? 


All of these people - the terrible trainee teachers, the uncaring nurses, the dismissive shop assistants - passed a selection process to get their job. They all ticked the right boxes for qualifications and experience. They are right on paper. And they are all the wrong people for the job they do. 


I'm not saying that we should start employing Nurses who don't know how to administer an i.v., or Teachers who don't know how to add up. I'm saying that there are some things you can train people to do: insert a catheter, long division, use a till. And there are some things that are inherent, that better be there from the beginning because they can't be taught: empathy, patience, thoughtfulness, resilience, professionalism. 


Wouldn't we be better off selecting people with the inherent qualities needed to do a job the right way, and then teaching them the technical stuff? After all, medical science moves on. Shops bring in new product, subjects evolve. No amount of customer-awareness training will make those nurses treat patients like human beings. I'm not even sure a training course exists that will teach a wet-behind-the-ears student teacher not to call his boss 'mate'. 


I think its a crying shame that the powers that be haven't cottoned on to this fact: Nurses and Teachers have to be people who are inherently right for the job. They must have the right attitude. Its one thing when Next employ a 'customer service advisor' with no concept of either customers or service. Its quite another when a Nurse or Teacher just aren't the right fit. The consequences can actually ruin lives. 


Of course it takes skill to select for attitude, and it takes time and effort to then train for the right skills. Which is why so many organisations rely on box-ticking instead. But we deserve better from those who select our public service employees. We deserve people who recognise the qualities that are actually important in a job and do everything in their power to seek out those that have that quality in abundance, and root out the imposters who may be right on paper but are oh-so-wrong in practice.