University degree not worth as much as touted

Really2

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

There was a boy at my childrens comp who was a maths genius. He just picked up the text books and taught himself. He even told the teachers when they were wrong. He went to a good university and easily got a first in maths. His mother was very good at keeping him well grounded, so that he didn't turn into a weirdo.

TBH I am glad to here that also because my experience are from my own personal ones and have no experience from my own child yet. (I did have some good teacher but some awful ones also)
I may be pleasantly surprised when he goes to school, but I do feel we should have a system more set up for developing strengths than trying to get an "average". I suppose like the basketball player if he was at the wrong school the talent would never be discovered/developed.

But thats a different subject (sorry about the edits:))

MissMoneypenny

Really2 wrote: »

TBH I am glad to here that also because my experience are from my own personal ones and have no experience from my own child yet. (I did have some good teacher but some awful ones also)
I may be pleasantly surprised when he goes to school, but I do feel we should have a system more set up for developing strengths than trying to get an "average". I suppose like the basketball player if he was at the wrong school the talent would never be discovered/developed.

But thats a different subject (sorry about the edits:))

Your child will do fine. Decent parents worry about their childrens education - that's our job:D Just find a reasonable state school and enjoy your child before he grows up.

Really2

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

Your child will do fine. Decent parents worry about their childrens education - that's our job:D Just find a reasonable state school and enjoy your child before he grows up.

Oh I am. We have a few here at the moment but who knows what they will be like in 8 years time.

I am prepared to move though, houses are not an emotional tie to me, just practical.

GDB2222

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

My son went to one of that list, got a 2:1 and started on 44K straight out of uni;)

That's a rather good starting salary. Can I ask what he started as?

MissMoneypenny

GDB2222 wrote: »

That's a rather good starting salary. Can I ask what he started as?

Investment banking. He is following in his mum's footsteps.

I should add that I didn't help him with contacts and that was a temp wage. He was offered perm at about 38k. He wanted temp as he wanted to go backpacking for a year.

SingleSue

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

The OU careers service? I didn't know they had one:o You don't need As with the OU. Either students can do the course or you can't. They just want the money.

How many points are you studying a year?

Nope, not the OU careers service.. the careers service attached to the job centre (or whatever they want to call it now), which they only referred me to under my own insistence (protected claim due to being a carer).

She was concerned that as my previous level of study had been O levels way back in 1986, I would struggle to cope with anything higher, so advised doing an access to learning course or possible trying an A level and then going on to degree level.

Instead, I started an ECDL via learn direct, saw how I got on there for the first module or so and then (I) decided it was good enough and applied to OU.

I did 60 points between Feb and Oct last year, doing 60 points starting this week until October but at some point will start to double up...unfortunately, being a full time carer to disabled children doesn't leave a huge amount of time left over for study, so whatever I do, I have to make sure I have enough time to concentrate on both...hence no formal university.

ninky_2

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

Investment banking. He is following in his mum's footsteps.

I should add that I didn't help him with contacts and that was a temp wage. He was offered perm at about 38k. He wanted temp as he wanted to go backpacking for a year.

and that's the thing. parental background has a far greater impact on career success than education. even if you didn't help him out with contacts he'd be familiar with the world of it etc. i didn't even know what investment banking was until i entered my 30s. and i was top of the class (in my various state schools). not that i mind. i don't think it would have suited me.

olly300

ninky wrote: »

and that's the thing. parental background has a far greater impact on career success than education. even if you didn't help him out with contacts he'd be familiar with the world of it etc. i didn't even know what investment banking was until i entered my 30s. and i was top of the class (in my various state schools). not that i mind. i don't think it would have suited me.

I wouldn't say what you are talking about is career success, you are talking about what career someone goes into.

And yes that does depend a lot on parental background but not exclusively.

My own careers advice and information came from my older siblings and their peers, as my own parents where near and retired when I was choosing options at school. My career and some my friends, family and acquaintances are in didn't exist 15 years ago.

ninky_2

olly300 wrote: »

I wouldn't say what you are talking about is career success, you are talking about what career someone goes into.

And yes that does depend a lot on parental background but not exclusively.

My own careers advice and information came from my older siblings and their peers, as my own parents where near and retired when I was choosing options at school. My career and some my friends, family and acquaintances are in didn't exist 15 years ago.

i'd say it's related to success to. all those posh activities rich kids get to do - horse riding, ski-ing, trips to art galleries, sailing - it all adds up to being in a world you feel familiar with and have shared interests in. i don't think those who had that even fully appreciate the benefits these sorts of things give them. cultural capital etc.

fc123

Stevie J posted this on the QE thread...sit's well on this one too.
I have quoted a small bit.:o

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/jan/31/unemployed-graduates-credit-crunch-andrew-hankinson

Delivering pizza? I ask Rajiv if he'd deliver pizza, considering the time and money he and his family have spent. He says he might, but not at the moment. Christine says she would if she could drive. But even if she learns to ride a scooter, is that work even available?

I phone my local pizza takeaway and ask – "No, no jobs, sorry Sir." I'm not disappointed, because there are acceptable down-jobs (labouring on a building site, helping an old man strip narrow boats, acting) and there's delivering pizza. I would have to work nights.

My boss would be… not a graduate. I'd have to chat with other deliverers – is that the job title? – who stack deodorants and empty beer cans on their bookshelves rather than books. Who probably don't even have bookshelves. Who probably think a digestif is a biscuit.

And then there's my friends: they'd show interest initially, but after four weeks, three months… What if they ordered pizza? And what if I were unable to claw my way back out of the social quicksand?


No. I'm part of the digital generation. I'm an email and adjustable-seat kind of worker. Maybe I can invent an iPhone app to deliver pizzas. Perhaps an entire series of iPhone apps. One of them could scoop cigarette ends out of urinals, another could be polite to customers. What's wrong with me?

Why am I not like Dad?

Dad would deliver pizzas.

I remember when his building business folded in the 1990s. He didn't sign on. He knew he was going to end up in a flat above a shop, but he stacked Thomson directories in the front garden and asked for help delivering them. I said no, because friends might see us schlepping up those long driveways. Life was easier when he had a Mercedes and Mum had a Porsche. Instead, he was riding a bicycle to the paper shop; not to buy a paper, to work there – the shop where I had a round!

He was furious when I said no, but he delivered the directories himself, worked in the paper shop, bought a van, started another building business, paid for my university accommodation, had a stroke, got walking again, went back to work, bought a nice house and built a large pond in his massive garden.

And I will never forgive myself for not helping with those directories. Nice work, son.