How can people be so greedy?

MissMoneypenny

neas wrote: »

Robotic Engineering AKA Cybernetics

Good one. We touched on that (very, very briefly) the other year, on my degree.

Badger_Lady

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

I take it your father didn't have a degree?

Is it relevant? He would often be faced with two options - the 25-yr-old who'd done a degree in Psychology and still lived with his parents, or the 25-yr-old who'd been working in IT-related roles for the past 9 years.

He just used to say it took longer for the poor graduates to catch up, which in his case it did (before you jump in Neas, it doesn't apply to you!).

Dylanwing

I don't know anyone who became rich by buying their own council house, but perhaps there were people who 'collected ' them as they were sold on.

It did happen. In a lot of cases, children could buy parents Council House as well as their own, and I know of one person who did this, whilst being on benefits (And working cash in hand). So the Council sells him a house cheap, Government pay mortgage interest - Great!!! Also, discounts were incredibly generous originally, and not all Council Housing was the 70's Estates. A lot of it was highly properties that Councils had accumulated over the years, much in highly desirable villages like Lacock. In Bath, even the Park-Keepers cottage was deemed as a 'Council Home' and somebody made over £250K by buying that (Sold for over £500K a few years ago). It became a massive scam, and I knew of families bucking the allocation criteria to qualify. One week this person was in desperate need of a house, and a few weeks later, they could miraculously afford to buy this property.
No criticism of the individuals, it was a very badly flawed policy, and people took advantage of it. The Wicked Witch was a grocers daughter, I wonder if he sold goods for a less than cost price. If not, why was it acceptable for Councils and Government to sell houses, Utilities etc. for a fraction of their true value?

izzybusy23

Phirefly wrote: »

Know what OP, for some reason I read the whole thread assuming you were a girl. It changes things to a certain degree.

So did I!!!

MissMoneypenny

Badger_Lady wrote: »

Is it relevant?

Yes. People who never got a degree, sometimes make degrading comments about those who have achieved higher eduction. I assume from his comments this meant your father hadn't got a degree? Was I correct?

Another comment I hear a lot from older people who didn't get a higher education is "I don't need a degree, I have a PHd in life."

With so many people getting degrees now, it seems that employers are being offered an easier choice of who to employ. Some degrees are useless, but others show that that person is reasonably intelligent and can learn. I am not saying that those that don't go to university are stupid though. Some employers want staff with good degrees from good universities.

neas

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

Good one. We touched on that (very, very briefly) the other year, on my degree.

It was freaking hard, if it wasnt bad enough i did an MENG instead of a BENG so i could get a masters degree cheaper... except the 4th year was a repeat of the hellish 3rd year.

Still it got me my job so im happy. Working as a systems engineer now.

MissMoneypenny

Badger_Lady wrote: »

He would often be faced with two options - the 25-yr-old who'd done a degree in Psychology and still lived with his parents, or the 25-yr-old who'd been working in IT-related roles for the past 9 years.

A degree normally takes 3 years, so that psychology graduate would have their degree at 21. So where had they been working for 4 years before they applied for a job where your father worked?

Jonbvn

Badger_Lady wrote: »

Is it relevant? He would often be faced with two options - the 25-yr-old who'd done a degree in Psychology and still lived with his parents, or the 25-yr-old who'd been working in IT-related roles for the past 9 years.

He just used to say it took longer for the poor graduates to catch up, which in his case it did (before you jump in Neas, it doesn't apply to you!).

I work for large MNC. With the exception of administrative posts, AFAIK nobody even gets an interview without a degree. Having been involved in the recruitment of technical staff, I would say that our HR dept certainly favours candidates from red-brick uni's with numerate degrees.

Since we are looking for technical/engineering staff, we always tend to go for the candidates who demonstrate the most practicality and common sense.

Badger_Lady

MissMoneypenny, I think you're missing my point. What we currently have are:

1. People who do a relevant degree for a specific career (like Neas)
- brilliant, let's get these people some sponsorship so they don't have to get into debt, and are guaranteed a worthy job at the end of it

2. People who are bright, independent and self-motivated, but don't know what they want to do and are too impatient to wait around at Uni
- get these guys young, give them some work experience and either guide them to the category above (through careers guidance), or provide some on-the-job training, because they've got the potential to do tremendous work

3. People who struggle with academic work and don't make it to Uni but have other useful skills
- let's sort out some apprenticeships to help these guys get into suitable employment - they're not cut out for Uni and that doesn't make them any less employable.

4. People who go to University because "it's the done thing", don't know what they want to achieve, and study a subject that has no relevance to any job
- let them pay for it themselves and warn them that they'll struggle on the other side. Some of them become perpetual students, some fall back on lower-paid jobs and some of them do OK, but they've got into debt and haven't shown any career ambition. They've also missed 3 years of useful work experience.

Now, I'm over-simplifying, and there are bound to be more categories than this... but my point is that the fourth category of Uni graduates, by the time they come out of Uni in their early 20's, are arguably less employable than categories 2 and 3 who haven't got a degree. And, in applying for the same jobs as Category 2, employers could well prefer the non-graduate.

ETA: Of course, the absolute winners will always be Category 1 - people with relevant degrees and ambition - no-one's disputing that.

neas

Badger_Lady wrote: »

MissMoneypenny, I think you're missing my point. What we currently have are:
4. People who go to University because "it's the done thing", don't know what they want to achieve, and study a subject that has no relevance to any job
Some of them become perpetual students, some fall back on lower-paid jobs and some of them do OK, but they've got into debt and haven't shown any career ambition. .

A friend from uni has done two degrees now, aiming to be a teacher so he can get all his student loans removed.... he wont be a good teacher thats for sure but he loves the life of a student... but you gotta grow up sometime and start planning for your and your familys future.

I'd say give students 'sponsoring' post degree. when they've got their degree, run a scheme with the goverment (similar way government sponsors teachers at moment) to eliminate their student loans over a period of say 4-5 years... Would be much better.

Would in same way teachers are being encouraged to take on the profession encourage other profession gaps to be filled.