Graduates 'Could be Jobless For Years'

SingleSue

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've never had time for any plan since I should have had one. It was always change, change, change. Wasn't ever long in one place, jobs/income/situation changing. Always having to work out where the money was coming from this week/month to pay for life and I've been all over the place. I was doing an OU course at one point, got over halfway through, then circumstances changed and I wasn't in a position to continue doing it. If you're not settled and having constant change you just wait, hoping that things will settle/change soon ... but if after 10 years they haven't you kind of just treat the change as normal and don't even think about plans.

Who knows, in 2 weeks' time I could have had a phone call, interview ... and be starting a new job 100-200 miles away. Or maybe my temp job will extend a few weeks. Or maybe there's no work in 2 weeks. So I can't even think about anything until I know what happens next .... and repeat, repeat ....

No point me doing a degree now. When I get a job and settle somewhere I can pick up the OU again, but not until then.

My plan isn't some 3 step, I will conquer the world sort of thing and it is subject to change....it's just something to work towards.

I just had to have something to keep my brain and hope alive in the intervening years between having to give up work to do the care duties and the day when eventually I can pick it back up again. There have been times when it has had to be changed or stopped (I first started a degree in 2005 when I was still married but had to stop when middle son had a particularly bad year), or the study has taken longer than it should have because of the children.

My master plan is actually quite simple - get more qualifications, keep the brain active, the hope alive and return to work full time eventually.

The minute details of the plan changes as circumstances change but the ultimate aim is still the same.

I'm still waiting for that settled year when I can think there is light at the end of the tunnel to come...but it will come eventually.

SingleSue

baileysbattlebus wrote: »

I used to work with one girl during her holidays, who was training to be a mental nurse
She was dyslexic, now if there is one thing that would worry me it would a member of the medical profession who is dyslexic. She had stickers to put on all of her course work.

She was a lovely girl, but I wouldn't be happy if she was reading or writing any medical notes for me!

Would you be surprised to know that I am actually dyslexic too? I do take your point though, it all depends on the severity and mine is very mild......I tend to put words back to front and the words swim and jump over the page as I am reading but practice has made it so that it hardly impacts on my life, others are not so lucky.

donaldtramp

The whole reason there are going to be so many graduates out of work is the simple fact that Labour's idea of creating "fairness" that is 50% of school leavers should go onto higher education. An absolutely ridiculous idea.
This has created so many nonsensical degrees such as hotel management, sports studies, film studies (I could go on and on but you get the picture). Oh, and all the new mickey mouse universities:rolleyes:
Degrees are rightly no longer valued because of this, with the exception of engineering, medicine and other science degrees.
Seriously do graduates expect employers to fall over themselves for a bit of paper with sociology and film studies written on it???
If I got that cv it would go in the bin.
Why does this country need to expand the numbers of people getting degrees if all they are going to graduate with is a piece of paper that clearly shows that they have done 7 hours a week of lectures for 3 or 4 years studying a subject that is without value to an employer?
Nope it's labours "target culture" to blame. They might have achieved their target of getting 50% of school leavers into higher education. In the process they have destroyed our higher educations reputation and hidden people in the education system (costing billions in the process) and when they graduate, they find their "skills" :rotfl:are not required, valued or respected.

The UK system is an absolute disgrace. We need to realise that our population isn't entitled to this charmed life that we expect. Britain needs a good shake and has to get down to a bit of hard work rather than ploughing on generating billions of debt and promising lifestyles that people think they are entitled to.

The 50% entry target to higher education is just a symptom of a far greater malaise in our country.

PasturesNew

Even teachers didn't have degrees when I went to school. The younger ones needed 2-3 A Levels, then went to Teacher Training College for 2 years. The older ones probably didn't even need that.

donaldtramp

Totally agree, the list is endless....
A girl I know very proudly told me how she is studying nursing at uni.
What??? Turns out it is a mickey mouse uni that has been expanded and amalgamated with various colleges that now come under the banner of central area university or some other comical title. You could probably study knitting to degree level at this uni, it's a joke.
This is all about the expansion of the state that is encroaching into all of our lives. There is no need whatsoever for all of this nonsense.
Think how much all of this is costing us!!!

These soft degree options are being taken by students that 25 years ago wouldn't have got through the doors of a proper university.
They are aimed at people that would traditionally have went on toward a non professional semi skilled occupation.
This is they way that successive governments, though mainly New Labour,have manipulated the figures to try and show that more and more people are 'degree' educated when in fact the degrees are not worth the paper they are written on.
The pretend universities fail their students and the students fail themselves by thinking they are part of academia and believing they are educated.
If I had one of these ridiculous degrees I would be ashamed to tell someone if they asked me what I studied.

Cleaver

donaldtramp wrote: »

If I had one of these ridiculous degrees I would be ashamed to tell someone if they asked me what I studied.

What degree do you have, and where from Mr Tramp? Just out of interest.

GrammarGirl

I always wonder why people get so worked up about degree subjects. Fair enough, some people feel media studies, sociology and the like are worthless and wouldn't even entertain a conversation with such a 'low level' graduate. But there are people with a GENUINE interest in these subjects, and contrary to what everyone always claims, people who graduate from these degrees CAN get jobs. The media industry is one of the biggest in the country and with a good few years' experience behind you, you can earn real money. SO why all the fuss? If people want to do these degrees, let them. They'll soon find out for themselves if they have the talent to work in the industry.

donaldtramp

Cleaver wrote: »

What degree do you have, and where from Mr Tramp? Just out of interest.

Engineering, from one of the oldest universities in the country.
You? Just out of interest....

SO why all the fuss? If people want to do these degrees, let them. They'll soon find out for themselves if they have the talent to work in the industry.

Why all the fuss? Because they are a waste of time and on the whole end up doing nothing to do with their degree.
90% of the graduates I knew who did some of these mickey mouse degrees are now earning buttons in jobs that do not require degrees and have NOTHING to do with their degree course. What's the point? Oh, but they've helped hit Labours target..

themanbearpig

GrammarGirl wrote: »

I always wonder why people get so worked up about degree subjects. Fair enough, some people feel media studies, sociology and the like are worthless and wouldn't even entertain a conversation with such a 'low level' graduate. But there are people with a GENUINE interest in these subjects, and contrary to what everyone always claims, people who graduate from these degrees CAN get jobs. The media industry is one of the biggest in the country and with a good few years' experience behind you, you can earn real money. SO why all the fuss? If people want to do these degrees, let them. They'll soon find out for themselves if they have the talent to work in the industry.

If a young person truly wants to get into the media sector, they should read a subject like history, english literature or philospohy. Media studies, is and always will be, a doss subject. At 17(when you apply at university), its unfair to expect every young person to understand the implications of picking a subject that the world will look down on, which is why they should receive guidance from their school.
But the school would never dissuade a student from higher education as they need to push as many people into university to produce the statistics to make themselves look good on the league tables, with little or no regard for the student.

The finger of blame should firmly be put on the state, as there need for ever increasing graduates (to make the UK look good on the global stage!), has distorted the graduate market, and has given every undergraduate a terrible reputation.

Cleaver

donaldtramp wrote: »

Engineering, from one of the oldest universities in the country.
You? Just out of interest....

I have a rather useless 2:2 in Archaeology. From a good uni though.