How young is too young to start managing talent?

[adigaskell]

I was slightly taken aback by news this morning of government plans to start providing careers advice to children as young as seven years old. Schools Secretary Ed Balls, said school children would receive mentoring from older students, successful business people plus careers advice via Facebook, YouTube and blogs.

Such early talent spotting is common in other areas, particularly in the sporting world where youngsters are plucked into youth academies at a very young age. Indeed Manchester United made headlines in 2007 for recruiting a nine year old Australian boy into their youth academy.

So how soon should companies start identifying talented youngsters? Should they follow the example set in the sporting world?
_________________
My Sites: The Management Blog | The Environment Site | Management Training

[seanstevens]

Personally I think this is too early and could potentially put undue pressure on kids. A lot if not most kids don't start to really develop their skills until they are older. I would not like my son (currently 6) to go through this and would prefer for him to develop naturally. If he is interested in something he will ask and then we can have a discussion.

I would however, love to see kids get more practical advice on managing cash and the like so that even at an early age there is a better understanding of this to avoid some potential debt problems when older.
_________________
Credit-Manager.Net
Credit Control Outsourcing and licensed Debt Collectors

[adigaskell]

[seanstevens]

Yes, without question parents should begin teaching kids about money early, but if it can be reinforced at school then it can only do some good for the future generations.
_________________
Credit-Manager.Net
Credit Control Outsourcing and licensed Debt Collectors

[Kay]

I don't know anything about kids (don't have any), but I'd have thought ideally the parents would do it. But there might be a lot of cases where the parents can't do it because they don't know how to themselves.

Same as cooking, you could argue that this should be taught at home. Yet there's a need to teach basic cooking in schools because many parents aren't able to do it themselves. I guess if you look at schools as being educational establishments, then they're there to teach life skills (sex education, cooking, money management, woodwork, etc) as well as the more academic subjects.
_________________
Not Delia - get a free food hygiene course!
Free resource for researching family history
British Expat