Last month was the climax of this year's exam season with first A-level and then GCSE results taking their annual slot at the top of the day's news agenda. With another year of record results came the now rather tired debate about whether exams are getting easier or pupils and teachers are just working harder.

But perhaps the real issue that needs to be discussed is exactly what school leavers are qualified to do once they have passed their exams. This is certainly something the business community was questioning as despite the year-on-year improvements in results employers often struggle to find decent candidates to fill their vacancies. Some even claim that they have to run remedial classes in basic skills in order to get new recruits up to scratch.

Business leaders have warned that with more young people dropping foreign languages and a failure to teach many a basic grasp of English and maths, the economy will suffer in the medium to long-term and employers will have to recruit more people from overseas.

While economic stability is obviously vital there is another issue related to what young people are taught at school. If we believe the media hype surrounding the consumer spending boom, which has only recently begun to slow, then the British obsession with debt is in part due to ignorance. The same has been said about savings accounts with the lack of interest in ISAs or pension schemes blamed on a failure to understand financial services products. Government efforts to bring simplified products to market could be seen as further evidence of this.

It would be rather simplistic to blame the education system for record personal debt levels, spiralling bankruptcies and an apparent disregard for retirement plans. But schools surely have a role to play in helping to prepare young people for the demands of managing their finances. This is especially relevant now that university students can expect to run up debts in excess of £20,000.

Soon after university, the next priority is likely to be getting on the property ladder, something young people will face having had very little if any preparation for taking out a mortgage.

At a time when the government is keen for schools to offer more vocational GCSEs there could be a case for asking the education system to play a bigger role in arming young people with the practical knowledge they need to function in a modern capitalist society. How to write a cheque, how credit card interest charges are calculated, how mortgages work and the best ways to save for the future would be just as useful as learning the names of cloud formations.

Some of these practical skills are dealt with by subjects like general studies or personal social development. But as the comments of leading business figures last month showed a growing desire for the education system to function more as a training ground for young people, faithfully churning out the kind of school leavers who have the practical as well as academic skills needed to make a real contribution, not just to the economy, but to society.