Damian Hinds blogspot

7 Jan 2019 Extract from a speech  at the Church of England Foundation for Educational Leadership conference [...] Albert Einstein once said: “Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character”. But what do we mean by character? Plenty of people have defined it in different and often complicated ways but I would like to suggest four pretty straightforward elements: First you have to believe you can achieve. You have to be able to stick with the task in hand, and see a link between effort today and payback some time in the future, even if it’s uncertain or rather a long way off. Finally, you need to develop the ability to bounce back from the knocks that life inevitably brings to all of us. Those four things would also set you up to a be a pretty good fraudster or bank robber. We want you to use strength of character to be good in the world and that is where virtues and values come in. So character must be grounded in virtues, in ...

6 Dec 2018 Speech at Battersea Power Station Good morning ladies and gentlemen… Thank you all for joining us here in Battersea… And thank you to Battersea for providing this very striking venue. I once came here as Minister for Employment and met some of your apprentices… I remember speaking to them about what they were doing…their future plans…and being struck - as I often am when talking to someone on a good quality apprenticeship - by their enthusiasm, their ambition, their optimism… the sense of what is possible in the future. Young people know when they are genuinely on a path to a good job, a great career – just as they know when they’re on a route to nowhere. And, unfortunately, for too long, we’ve had too many of our young people leaving school without the necessary skills or direction - and ending up on a dead-end route…getting in to work but not able to get on in work and progress to something better. I am determined now to change this. Everyone must be given the chance to ge...