Education as Britain’s great reset amid the AI cyclone
By John O’Brien MBE
I left school with a couple of low-grade A-levels and never attended a university, something which most people find surprising.
However, the conventional academic approach of the 1960s and ’70s never quite fitted me. What shaped me were experiences outside the classroom, initial work at a Bank that revealed the world of business, and then being accepted and graduating from Sandhurst and the experience of ten years in the Army.
Those experiences gave me what qualifications alone could not: a sense of purpose, responsibility and resilience. That is why I believe one of the urgent “resets” Britain now needs is in how we educate, not simply as transferring knowledge, but as the formation of character.
At Anthropy, the UK’s largest cross-sector leadership gathering, we want to build a united future for Britain, one in which our next generation can navigate complexity, value difference and collaborate across divides.
To achieve that, education must evolve from teaching for attainment to teaching for citizenship.
AI transition
We are at a moment of deep transition. Artificial intelligence, political fragmentation and economic uncertainty have left many young people unsure about their prospects and their place in society.
Britain’s future cohesion now depends on whether we can shape a generation who are comfortable with difference, capable of cooperation and motivated by a purpose beyond self-interest.
I do not believe this can be achieved through exam results alone, it also requires the education of character, from the earliest of ages, the deliberate cultivation of empathy, courage, curiosity and integrity.
I previously helped create national mentoring and work-experience programmes linking schools with businesses, under the auspices of King Charles’s charities. I saw that young people gained not just insights into work but also self-confidence.
They discovered the potential they had and that of society and found a sense of connection to the world beyond their school experience. I know however from seeing my own daughter’s generation that our current system, remains tethered to Victorian norms. It still too often rewards recall over reflection.
It measures what can be tested, rather than what must be trusted. In the process, we have an anxious generation, often technically capable, yet emotionally under-equipped for adult life.
We ask them to memorise facts, but not to manage failure or to disagree constructively. We prepare them to pass exams, but not to navigate life.
In contrast, character-based education recognises that values like responsibility, teamwork, and civic engagement are not soft skills, they are key to an individual’s social capability and our wider societal infrastructure.
They are what hold a nation together when politics fractures, when technology outpaces regulation and when truth itself is harder to distinguish.
I believe the next focus of education must be one of forming behaviours, not only minds but hearts. This does not mean abandoning academic rigour; it means situating it within a broader moral and social framework.
National Citizen Service
Imagine if every student were required to undertake a community project before leaving school, like what the National Citizen Service encouraged prior to it being axed by this Government.
A chance to serve, collaborate and solve real-world problems alongside people unlike themselves, within their communities. That would create a generation who understand society as a community of contribution and connection.
We are seeing divisions in our society like never before, yet division is not born in adulthood; it is learned through exclusion and isolation in youth. If we want a society that is capable of unity amidst diversity, we must start by ensuring young people grow up seeing difference as an enrichment, not a threat.
That means designing learning environments where debate is encouraged, but civility is maintained, where competition exists, but not at the cost of compassion. We need collaboration and different perspectives to become the norm, the very skills that will define leadership in our complex, interconnected world.
In short, education must again become the great equaliser of British life, not simply through access, but through the shared experience of character-building.
Gen Evolve are pioneering a new blueprint for education, one that bridges learning with life, business and wellbeing. By supporting such movements, we can cultivate a generation of “young Anthropists” equipped to lead with empathy, innovation and purpose. When we unite behind this kind of innovation, we can ensure education once again becomes the foundation for a truly united and resilient Britain.
Parents now have the chance to lead this great reset, by standing with Gen Evolve to champion an education that shapes character as well as capability. Together, we can raise a generation ready to serve, to lead and to care. Join the movement here; www.genevolve.org