Too many graduates?

[rov1200]

With New Labours plan to get 50% of students into higher education are we set to produce too many unemployed graduates and is this the first results of the policy?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7821629.s tm

[New Judge]

For many of them, it merely keeps them off the unemployment register for three years and causes them to incur �12k plus of debt.

The vast majority of jobs in this country do not need the jobholders to be educated to degree level. If they were educated properly at school (a big "if") young people should be perfectly well equipped to embark on a useful and fulfilling career.

Many of them are now discovering this and hopefully the ridiculous notion that half of them need university education will slowly wane. The resources thus saved from funding new �universities� will be freed up to provide decent secondary education.

[rov1200]

I agree, I think many of them have been led up a blind path with not enough skilled jobs to satisfy all of them. Plus as you say the debt of over �12,000 but up to �30,000 to pay back after their study.

I totally agree with the increase in apprenticeships and the new diploma courses which will give up front hands on training. Paper qualifications can be a handicap when looking for work as most employers these days want experience.

[jno]

there's a recession on at the moment, which wasn't on when they started their studies. Until recently unemployment has been fairly low; neither they nor the government had reason to suppose that would change. Now that it has changed the government is doing something about it.

[rov1200]

Even without the recession it was on the cards and were warned repeatedly. I accept that because of the financial meltdown many of the financial jobs will no longer be there especially as London is loosing the top spot in the worlds financial market. The 3 month job placement will help some of the 30,000 graduates this year but there will still be some sorry faces.

Maybe there is some hope for those willing to work abroad but obviously not until after the recession.

[New Judge]

The recession means that there are fewer jobs all round and people at all levels of education will find it harder to find a job.

The issue raised here is really whether young people are wasting their time attending university. Judging by people that I know I would say that the answer is a definite �yes�. I know a number of youngsters who accrued huge debts (and cost their parents dearly as well) only to exit university and do jobs which they could have done three years earlier.

At risk of repeating myself, I say again that there is simply no need for the majority of new workers in this country to attain a university education. Unless they are to follow a career which definitely warrants it, such further education is of little benefit to huge numbers of youngsters who are being fooled into thinking that it is something that they must do.

And the principle culprits in this deception are the current government.

[rov1200]

I don't disagree with you but other factors also come into it such as the herd instinct, 'my friends are off to uni so I will join them'. Children are no longer required to get a job to supplement the family income. Their future is undiscovered and not so much thought goes into the process except not wanting to get a job at Tescos etc.

My family went to university and although they got reasonable jobs soon after became too old at 35 to get a non managerial job. There are many ex-graduates who are looking for work now, many. What a waste of a life!

[Eve]

I wish there was far more emphasis on vocational training to suit the needs of the job market as many graduates are finding their degrees of very little use.

I didn't really want to go to uni initially, wanted to do nursing or paramedic training, but there had always been an expectation of me going to uni so, having studied french, german and spanish at A Level I went on to study french, german and italian at uni.

I love languages but got bored and needed more of a challenge and realised that being able to speak a number of languages really wouldn't get me very far as I'd still need to train for something more vocational and other europeans speak languages so much better than we do anyway.

So I switched to law after my first year and an now a solicitor.

I saw many other students realising the limits of their degrees to things like research or teaching, neither of which they wanted to do. Many are now in jobs which had no need of degree level study.

Since I've seen many who, especially in my field, would have done far better having just started working at a lower level and getting experience and working their way up than struggling to go in at a higher level because they didn't get the right degree results.

They are now far worse off than people I know who never went on to uni and just got inand worked and learned and are very good at what they do and paid accordingly.

I also think it's a shame teaching training can't be more structured from undergrad level, teaching what they need to know to teach from the off combined with teacher training rather than having to do the degree then go into training.