Uni grads

[DC_FC]

Is there much point in going to uni when at the end of it you end up waiting ages to get a job and a loan hanging over you

[boxtops]

Fair question.... there are some jobs where you must have a degree in a specialist subject, but I know loads of people with degrees who are now in any job they can get (and some who are still looking).

[craft1948]

It depends on what sort of career you want I suppose.......

[Buenchico]

University isn't about getting a job (or about personal finances). It's about meeting new friends, having new experiences, trying to gain maturity while still enjoying your youth and simply about having the best time of your life.

[boxtops]

Interesting perspective, Chris!

[craft1948]

Expensive though isn't it Chris. My daughter went to uni but her best friend went to work after her 'A' levels........the daughter was 28 before she earned more than her mate, and it took her 3 years to find a job to use her qualifications.

[buildersmate]

This whole charade has been created by a Government over 15 years obsessed with creating a better-educated population. It seeks to demonstrate that young people finishing education now have a higher average education level then before. Maybe in terms of fancy pieces of paper and an education in life that is true, but it has raised the expectation of those graduating that 'better' jobs will be then available to them. For better, read higher paid, to enable repayment of those costly loans. Why should a surfeit of better jobs be available? - the country still needs a balance of skill levels - its the unskilled manual work that the country now has less of - that's the area where the base education level needed to be upped.

[jake-the-peg]

There are less and less manual jobs now BM because so many of the unskilled jobs are done more cheaply abroard

You may not like that but until the cost of living in China equalises with that in the UK it will continue to be the case - and that day is a long way off.

Consequently this country's best chance of competing on the world stage is in high value, highly technical products and services - which is something we've always been good at

That's why we need more highly educated people than ever before

Just being able to multiply two numbers together to calculate the area of a room doesn't hack it any more

[buildersmate]

Its multiplying it by the height I have trouble with - always buying too much Dulux to paint the room.

[sandyRoe]

Would we want to go back to the days when Uni was something for the privileged few?

[buildersmate]

For 'privileged', do you means those capable of getting at least 2 Cs and a D at A-level? If so, yes please.

[sandyRoe]

I was thinking of a time when family connections and money meant more than A Level results.
Does anyone remember what class of grades Prince Charles got that enabled him to go to Oxford?

[jake-the-peg]

Why? what are you going to do with them? put them in the army?

There are a lot of kids that just are slower in getting academic - there are a number of courses that offer anm additional foundation year for them and they can suceed with a bit of extra help.

I was one such that was slower in getting to that point

[buildersmate]

No, Jake. You perhaps get me wrong. I'm all for training and education too. The issue I have is in the assumption that getting a degree gets you to a higher point on the pyramid to start with. I don't believe it does and one is saddled with a massive debt to pay off in the meantime until you do get there. By 'pyramid' I guess I mean the level / seniority / responsibility one gets relatively early in a career - commanding a salary to justify the debt to be paid off.
We don't need more graduates, we need to pull up the bottom end (unskilled / uneducated) towards the middle - to support the mass employment in "high value, highly technical products and services".

[twix123]

Since 1997 the idea of getting at least 50% of school leavers into further and higher education was a Government ploy to both reduce the unemployment figures and keep the total of benefit payments as low as possible. This seems to be also a reason why 'A' levels have been 'dumbed down' over the same period!

[4getmenot]

funny you said that, i had a back to work session at job centre this morning (thrilling) and they were on about IT courses, and some girl put her hand up and said, in a very posh voice 'er can I still go on one if I have a degree' I thought to myself then 'well thet degree got you far'

[4getmenot]

I'd like to study The muppets

[buildersmate]

I've heard that it's a dead cert to get yourself onto University Challenge.