Graduates now 'more likely to end up as cleaners', official figures show

lostinrates

gadgetmind wrote: »

We get all sorts applying, but sadly those that make the grade are increasingly not UK educated. We pay well and treat people well, as shown by high levels of applications and *devastatingly* good retention figures, but just find little wheat in the chaff.

We do have a stated policy of preferring empty seats to seats with the wrong backsides in them. Other companies might be less fussy. I like our approach!

your approach makes sense, the same happens with dh's employers and they are rewarded well with loyalty and dedication I think. from his perspective anyway.



edit: another question.....for roles higher than new gred roles....do you find the same....say ten years experience?

flexrider

Education.....Education....Education

Seems the 90's now and Labour was not right on that 1 eh if there no jobs that match the qualifaction, Thank god i started up my own businesses and became a employer More risks but like good old frank "I did it my way".:)

happymonday77

One anonymous contributor to a student website wrote: ‘If I could have my time back, I wouldn’t have gone to university.


Only one, in all honesty I should imagine the figure is more like 75%.

I have some serious questions in relation to the value of degrees. My OH is undertaking a fine art degree and both he and I say it is a piece of cake in comparison to my professional degree which I recently finished. Both degrees, but both require very different levels of academic achievement to pass the course.


I always wanted a degree but I feel that in the UK graduates are not valued. Is this becasue we have a higher educated society, so hence we actually take for granted what we do have and end up with graduate trained cleaners? or is it because degrees have become easier? It is tricky to generalize when different degrees have very different expectations.Perhaps we should save degrees for professionals and those pure academic subjects and increase HNDs in the less "useful" areas?

ukcarper

I think we are at the stage where some HNDs are more academic than a lot of degrees, there is a lot of maths and physics in HNC electrical engineering/electronics.

kabayiri

ukcarper wrote: »

I think we are at the stage where some HNDs are more academic than a lot of degrees, there is a lot of maths and physics in HNC electrical engineering/electronics.

In my 4 year electronics degree, the Maths paper was the exact same as the Applied Maths paper the Maths students sat.

Some electronics disciplines, like Microwave theory, are basically mathematics subjects.

gadgetmind

Lokolo wrote: »

Was it it exactly that's bad about them? Their actual technical skills? Work ethic? Soft skills?

Technical skills, but lack of these at this stage suggests lack of *real* interest in the subject.

As for soft skills, we accept that this varies, particularly in the young, and we're happy to nurture such things,

gadgetmind

flexrider wrote: »

Thank god i started up my own businesses and became a employer More risks but like good old frank "I did it my way".:)

I have never had to write a CV or have a job interview. Sweet!

Lokolo

gadgetmind wrote: »

Technical skills, but lack of these at this stage suggests lack of *real* interest in the subject.

As for soft skills, we accept that this varies, particularly in the young, and we're happy to nurture such things,

See I find that really odd! Whenever I've been to interviews they've been more interested in my soft skills rather than my technical experience. I usually explain my programming experience at some point during the interviews but they tend to just ask questions about what I've done in previous jobs in terms of team working, leadership, why the job, why the company etc.

Bloomberg were the only ones who gave me an actual programming test.

ukcarper

kabayiri wrote: »

In my 4 year electronics degree, the Maths paper was the exact same as the Applied Maths paper the Maths students sat.

Some electronics disciplines, like Microwave theory, are basically mathematics subjects.

Although I never went to university I have studied electrical engineering / electronics to degree level and can vouch for the maths content.

vivatifosi

Callie22 wrote: »

I'm a graduate (although I don't have any debt, I worked my way through uni so didn't take out any loans) and I have actually considered becoming a cleaner, simply because despite the recession people seem willing to pay an extraordinary amount to have someone else clean their house. There aren't many graduate jobs where you could earn £15 p/h, yet that seems to be the going rate for a cleaner near me.

I'm with Callie here. What does it matter if people are cleaners? The reason a good cleaner can earn £15 p/h has nothing to do with how good someone is with a bottle of bleach. A good cleaner (who will have excellent references and probably a waiting list) is far more than that. They are discreet so that they never talk about what they may find out. They are reliable so and trustworthy and will never take anything from the house. They are able to work on their own, without supervision. They get the job finished on time in order to earn their pay and get their money in. On a small scale, these are the sort of skills people need to run a business.

If people start out as cleaners, postmen or anything else mentioned in the article and it gives them a start, fair play to them.