dont understand degrees anymore

ViolaLass

You also don't have to go to uni at 18. It can wait until you know what you want to do.

NineDeuce

The university debt stories are all scare stories. The students now have it easier than before....

pinkshoes

There will be THOUSANDS of students who never pay back their debt due to ending up in low wage jobs.

I would go to university if it is a good degree (medicine, engineering, maths, science...) from a decent university with a good reputation, but otherwise I would go down the apprenticeship route.

paddyrg

TELLIT01 wrote: »

The result was dozens if not hundreds of 'degree' courses in subjects which didn't give the recipients any better chance of employment than had they gone straight into work when leaving school. It can even be argued that the degree makes them less employable as they are hitting the job market at a higher age, with elevated pay expectations but no experience.

This is true. Film industry for instance is extremely vocational, and a degree in Film and Media Studies gives you no advantages over a direct entrant. You still start as a runner and work your way up. There are no shortcuts as the courses simply don't teach anything about the actual mechanics of making a movie and don't give practical experience beyond making one short (some courses will be better than others, Ravensbourne for instance is very vocational).

One thing we sometimes see is film graduate runners feeling they should have a more senior position than standing in the rain for 12h guiding traffic, or cleaning up after a bunch of messy extras, but these are jobs that need to be done, and that's effectively the job description! As such, a runner with a film degree makes me more wary than runners without. A degree is great for a production runner who wants to hang out in the production office, but a floor runner I'd rather someone was practical and not precious or trying to second-guess instructions.

bugslet

Same with transport managers paddyrg, I want someone that knows the job from the floor up so to speak. Maybe it's useful for joining a big logistics company so you can witter on with the current buzzwords. At Bugs Transport I find there is only one way to tell a driver to deliver a load and only experience really can tell you about pricing.

steampowered

Stop thinking about student debt as a "debt".

Thinking about it as a "debt" is very misleading. You don't pay it back unless you earn above the threshold. The size of repayments is based on your earnings and nothing to do with the amount outstanding. Most people will never pay it back. It gets written off if not paid. It gets deducted from your salary - there are no debt collectors and no repayments from your bank account.

Instead, think of student debt as a tax. The way it works is that 9% of your income above the threshold (currently £17,775) gets deducted from your salary through PAYE.

Is it worth it? That entirely depends on the person and the course.

I would say the important thing is to focus on what your son wants to do, and what his skills/interests are. You can then decide whether university will help him achieve his goals or not.

Going to university does open doors to people which are closed to those without degrees. Many jobs which in the past were open to all now require degrees. Although there are of course plenty of other options.

HardCoreProgrammer

>> one can get a job with that wage without a degree for example, a full time postman in our area is on 23k
My starting salary was less than 20k, about 15 years ago. I am now on about 3 times that. Would a postman be able to do that?

martinsurrey

HardCoreProgrammer wrote: »

My starting salary was less than 20k, about 15 years ago. I am now on about 3 times that. Would a postman be able to do that?

you are selectively quoting the OP.

hello007007 wrote: »

I was horrified to read about people buried in uni debt and on 20k a year at 30 odd years old etc..., one can get a job with that wage without a degree for example, a full time postman in our area is on 23k.

OP was talking about people on that wage 9-10 years post graduation, of which there are many.

reading comprehension and debate skills are also taught well at the best unis on good courses!

Red-Squirrel_2

Money isn't everything.

martinsurrey

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

Money isn't everything.

"money cant buy you happiness...

... But it CAN buy you a jet ski, and have you ever seen anyone sad on a jet ski!"