Troppi giovani si sono spinti verso l’università, afferma il consigliere del governo britannico
https://www.ft.com/content/c8f77520-e9db-4185-8725-3859aa5e86a3
di 457655676
Troppi giovani si sono spinti verso l’università, afferma il consigliere del governo britannico
https://www.ft.com/content/c8f77520-e9db-4185-8725-3859aa5e86a3
di 457655676
24 commenti
From my anecdotal experience, it is absolutely true. Too many people I know graduate with degrees completely unrelated to the field they work in.
They would be better served in on job training and not taking on debt.
This can be traced directly back to “Call me Tony” Blair and his idiotic proposal to get to 50% going to uni
Completely true from my perspective. I never really wanted to go to uni but felt pushed into it and every adult I’d talk to would take the attitude that ‘it doesn’t even matter what field you get your degree in, employers just look for a degree unless it’s a specialist field.’ While this may have had some semblance of truth forty years ago it doesn’t at all now. I’ve got a completely pointless degree.
Don’t go to Uni. Don’t do nothing. Don’t find any job when you search.
Wtaf do they want young people to do, aside from be blamed for their lack of options?!
When I was in sixth form, there was an advisor to help students get into uni. There was no such advice for jobs or apprenticeships. They were clearly rated on the rate of students going to uni
I didn’t do well in my A-Levels and expressed that I didn’t feel like I was ready for uni and would rather do an apprenticeship, I was recommended HND courses instead…
Some careers need a university degree and some people go to university and do really well from it but we still have the underlying idea that clever kids go to university and get good jobs, while the thickos just do whatever jobs and scrape by, which simply isn’t true.
Too many slop universities, too much mounting student debt that is now just a government spending blackhole (last i checked, £250 billion)
I wonder if part of the problem is that we’re training people to basically make money for someone else. Uni used to be about the joy of learning, rather than just specialised job training. The commodification of tertiary education has a lot to answer for.
There is a big stigma of not going pushed by schools.
I went to a fairly well known (and very well performing) south London school and the pressure to go to uni was insane. I have a vivid memory of a presentation (I think via a gov 3rd party organisation too?) that basically said average grad wage vs average apprentice wage, and they used a low end childcare apprentice as an example, as if to shame you.
A large portion of the people I knew went to uni just because “that’s what my parents want” or “I don’t know, just seems like the thing to do.”
Even the job I have now, I’ve spoken to grads via our scheme and asked them what made them study what they did and every time it’s “just seems like a good thing to do”
Fwiw, I know myself and knew uni wasn’t ideal for me, so I went the apprenticeship route instead.
Being realistic, middle class parents aren’t going to be sending their kids to vocational schools, so when we say fewer students should be going to university, we’re talking about working class students being cut off from professional jobs
The government should just stop funding for degrees with poor outcomes, not stopping working class students going to university.
(We should however be providing better funding for vocational areas in any case)
I would say that is true.
You can earn a decent living doing a trade provided you pick the right one.
Blair was to blame for this – he pushed everyone to go to university.
It did feel quite forced, my parents wanted to me to go, I did an undergraduate not relevant to anything. I did a masters which has a lot more relevance to my field now, however the masters was my decision.
When Blair made the big push for 50% of young people to have a degree, did anyone actually agree with it?
I went to a very average school, in the 2000s, and even then going to uni was the expected path. Most kids at that age don’t have a particular direction to follow, they’re not thinking about a career, they’re just going with the flow. When the perception is that everyone goes to uni unless they’re too stupid, then most will just pick something that sounds kind of enjoyable and keep riding the wave of education.
UK and Ireland are obsessed with Degrees and what Uni you attended. It’s a class thing and completely pointless.
“We need more uneducated youngsters to do the crappy low paid jobs” – a government minister, somewhere, probably.
I dont think kids are being pushed to university for the sake of it – aside from hands on jobs, how many white collar jobs can you get into with just A levels? Most, if not all, professional engineering roles need degrees – a couple of them can be degree apprenticeships but things like chemical engineering don’t work for it.
We all keep acting like there are simple singular options when it comes to professional development, but the best thing would be to ensure there are a range of options for people to pursue their interests, and time and funding afforded to do it. If somebody wants an education in art, they should be able to pursue it, regardless of how it affects their future employability. If someone wants to be a plumber, there should be apprenticeships and courses available. It’s trying to one size fits all that has ended up with mass amounts of people having degrees they can’t utilise.
When I did my degree I got professional work experience every summer and it was a chance for me to mature and study. I also worked in a shop 20 hours a week during term time, which gave me lots of work experience, and build up some resilience, life is what you make it. If you come out of uni and just study for 3/4 years without any work, it’s not really going to benefit you.
This is not a new thing, when I was at uni, started in 2005 some people never worked and expected to come out of uni and start a job, only to find if they have never worked, an employer wasn’t interested.
The difference now is the debt has increased, and so people need to work out if this is the right thing to do.
I agree. I don’t think every job needs a degree (even if thats the way we’re pushing it). We should rebuild the apprentice system that Thatcher destroyed and retune the focus of the universities.
Education is not just about jobs or careers, it is about critical thinking, learning how to think for yourself, learning new ideas and mixing with other bright people. And without a degree, you are limiting yourself to the types of jobs you can apply for.
It is absolutely true, and university doesn’t suit everyone, but rich people aren’t telling their kids to forgo uni. Uni is not the only route, but it is a path for many people to continue their education, experience new places/people and potentially put themselves in a better position for their future.
Friendly reminder to everyone, there are about 20 countries with higher rates of university attendance than the UK and in most of them there is a significant graduate wage premium. The problem is not university attendance, it is a weak job market and stagnating economy. The upper classes will continue to send their children to tertiary education while they convince yours to abandon it.