Qualifications: just how important are they?
In 1999 there were 334,594 accepted applicants to university or college in the UK. Ten years later in 2009 there were 481,854 – an increase of 44%. At the end of three or four years of study many new university graduates can expect fierce competition for graduate jobs. Many will not even use their degrees, instead finding work wherever they can.
A recent BBC news article states that the Aldi retail group’s management scheme had 12,000 applications for 50 places and international accountancy firm, Ernst and Young, can expect around 15,000 applications for approximately 900 vacancies. 
From the same article, here are one new graduate’s thoughts on the value of university degrees:
“I think we as a society should seriously consider the value of a university degree. It has become nothing more than the new A-level. It seems that sooner or later you’ll need to study until you’re in your thirties before you’ll be able to apply for a graduate role.”
None of this is particularly inspiring for those about to embark on a degree – especially when you take into account the fact that many of them will also leave with frightening levels of debt. According to a recent Guardian article, university research site Push.co.uk claims that the average student graduating in July 2011 will find themselves with £21,198 of debt.
My youngest daughter is one of those off to university for the first time in September (providing she gets the grades she needs). She knows that having a degree will not automatically mean a graduate level career, and she’s aware that she will probably leave university with at least some level of debt – despite my and her father’s financial support. And yet, in spite of all this, it seems that going to university and getting a degree is still the best option for her. For her, university will not be just about getting the qualification but, as for so many, about growing in confidence and maturity, developing all sorts of academic, practical and life skills and, with luck, using those three years to productively pass the time until she’s a little more sure about which direction she wants her work life to take.
She is optimistic that a degree will still give her an advantage, open doors, and get her on the first step of the ladder to a decent career. I don’t share her optimism. I feel that she needs to have more strings to her bow: that she needs to have work and skills to fall back on that don’t leave her so dependent on qualifications or employers.
With that in mind, we’ve been discussing options for self-employed work that she can start to contribute to and develop (with my support) while she is studying: work that will mean she isn’t launched into some sort of employment and financial void at the end of three years; something that she can put more time into in the long university summer holidays, and can continue when she has finished her degree. A financial and employment safety net, if you like. She took A Level Business Studies, has a good business head on her shoulders and is keen to work for herself, so it looks like this could be a successful strategy for her.
Like many parents, I expected both my daughters to take A Levels and then go on to university. When my eldest daughter dropped out of college six weeks before her final exams and announced that she’d decided university wasn’t for her, I was very concerned. I tried to encourage her to at least finish the final six weeks, and to convince her that qualifications would give her an advantage in the future when she would be applying for jobs: but all to no avail. She knew that route wasn’t for her. She wanted to work and get experience via that work, and to eventually start her own business. She already had loads of work experience: as soon as she was old enough she’d started work, and for several years worked through all her school and college holidays, and many weekends as well. When she wanted to move on from a job, she went and found another. It rarely took her more than a day or two to find alternative employment. At twenty years old she now has a huge range of experience in dealing with the public, using her initiative and being responsible for others; and knows all about working hard for very long hours – all this is arguably much more valuable to her than qualifications when it comes to running her own business.
Over the past three years or so, my views on qualifications have changed. Not so long ago I felt that probably the best way for my children to get a real advantage in life was to follow the route of A Levels, then a university degree. My experience with my daughters, plus the current situation with insufficient numbers of graduate level jobs and the high levels of student debt, has shown me that this isn’t necessarily the case. My home-educated son is also unlikely to follow the traditional qualification route into work.
I worked very hard to get my qualifications later in life, in the belief that my degree and MA and MEd would give me an advantage over others in my field, and to some extent there’s no doubt they have, but I also know that there are many many people out there in the world of business who have made a huge success of their lives and work without the ‘benefit’ of formal qualifications. And the irony in teaching for one former employer and effectively working for less than minimum wage when expenses and preparation time at home were taken into account, whilst being qualified to masters degree level, certainly didn’t escape me!
If you have formal qualifications, how useful have they been in securing you employment with an employer or, if you run your own business, work from clients? And if you don’t have many, or any, formal qualifications do you feel this has been a disadvantage or held you back in any way?
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Interesting questions raised there! It does seem that there is an expectation that every young adult should have a degree – in which case, where is the advantage to the individual graduate?
I think it depends on the career choice. My eldest daughter had always wanted to teach, so a degree was necessary for her, and has of course benefitted her in that she couldn't be employed as a teacher without it.
My youngest daughter was less certain of what she wanted to do, and is currently about to start her final year of her degree without much idea of what she wants to do at the end of it. Like you, she and I think that she will need more than “just” a good degree to compete with all the other graduates. In addition to the paid part-time jobs she has done throughout college and university, this summer she is doing volunteer work both in London and Africa at a charity. When she completes her degree she is looking to do an (unpaid) internship in New York. Hopefully these extra activities will not only help clarify what career she'd like, but also look inpressive on her CV.
I got my degree late in life, and really did it for my own satisfaction and professional development. Has it helped in business? Yes, in three ways. It gives me credibility with some people, it gave me lots of knowledge and skills I have used in the business, and I gained business and contacts from some of my fellow mature students. I doubt not doing it would have held me back 'tho.
Horses for courses – degrees aren't right for everyone. There are many other ways to begin a career, some far superior.
Twitter: evenbreak
Ah, the devaluation of degrees. A subject that concerns me greatly. If Tony Blair et al hadn't been so keen to push everyone – regardless of skills or interest – into a university degree course, we wouldn't now have so many unemployable university graduates at the same time as a dearth of people with practical skills.
My 9 year old son talked about university recently. When I asked why, he said “Well, DUHHHH, Mum. It gives you options”. Which has always been my view until now.
I am not sure it is now, especially as my children spent a year in home ed land, and have seen the value of a less academic education. I'm sitting on the fence for a few more years, to see how this pans out, but I certainly won't be advising my children to get into debt for the sake of it.
On a final note, I'd have had REAL difficulty dealing with a child who decided to drop out only 6 weeks from the end of her course. If you're going to drop out, do it early, not waste your time and everyone else's. I also worry that it would indicate to a future employer that you can't see a project through. My partner's daughter (now 21) is clearly bright and has 10 GCSEs but refused to stay on to A levels – it strikes me that she will be similarly disadvantaged, as she has shown she CAN do stuff, but chooses not to.
I have a whole raft of qualifications, letters after my name and probably the first in my family to get a degree.
Did I enjoy getting it – yes, I graduated at 29. Did I use it? not in the job that I did. Did it teach me to think? yes, quite a bit. Has it got me a better job? errr, nope and it cost me £10k to do. Would I do it again? probably.
I am currently looking at post grad courses to see if there is anything that can help me in the future and then I remember, it's not bits of paper that get jobs but people.
Jessica wants to be a toxicologist, so a degree course is in the offing for her and she has a pleasant personality so she will get a job somewhere doing what she wants. I feel sad for the kids that are very quiet and they think their degree will get them a brilliant job, it doesn't prepare them for the non academic world does it?
The whole issue of tertiary education is increasingly complex and which way young people should jump is becoming more and more dependent on their personalities and capabilities. Trouble is, they may be influenced towards a choice unsuitable for them by family or peer pressure, which could be one reason why we get so many university and college dropouts.
My only son is 18 and has just done his “A” levels. He has been offered conditional places at Nottingham and Leicester Universities to read politics, and as he's not sure what he wants to do ultimately – as with Jane's younger daughter – university will give him the chance to learn more about himself and the options open to him.
But take a case where a young person's abilities are far more vocational or entrepreneurial … an academic degree is going to be wrong for them, and there should be no stigma attached to gaining a good education through the “University of Life.”
What a shame the careers advisory elements in secondary schools can't be more targeted … giving Y11, Y12 or Y13 students psychometric tests might help but as the students are still evolving and maturing, such tests might not yield results that are accurate longterm. What do our educationalist readers think of that?
Twitter: SuzeStMWrites
I did have difficulty dealing with the fact that my daughter had dropped out of college and for the reasons you mention, amongst others, but the real problem was that she had really only gone to college because it was expected of her – her school expected it of her because she is intelligent and had always done very well at school, and I, and her father, expected her to go to college and university because we believed it would give her the best choices in life. What she really wanted to do was work and be self-employed, and that's exactly what she has done now.
Now when I think of her time at college I think that it shows strength of character, not only because she stuck it out for so long – even though she hated it – but because she made a very difficult decision to leave in the face of opposition from her parents and the college staff. She didn't so much 'drop out' as make a conscious and difficult decision to leave and do what she wanted rather than what was expected of her. It certainly hasn't held her back and it might be that your partner's daughter will find her own path just as successfully.
Twitter: StudyingOnline
I agree, Angela. It was brave of your daughter to tell you at such a crucial time that this was not the path for her – definitely showing strength of character there!
As for my partner’s daughter, well, she has done a number of office secretarial type jobs and also been unemployed. I really don’t think she’s likely to aspire higher than this. Which is a shame, because she clearly IS bright. Anyway, she’s not my daughter, so I’m not going to worry about her.
I don’t think her Dad’s too worried, because he’s an entrepreneur who has run his own business for 30 years and who left school with “I don’t know, 2, maybe 3 O levels.” So he thinks she’ll be fine.
I feel it is a terrible shame that we have practically given up on apprenticeships – no wonder a plumber can charge what s/he likes, because there is no competition for his/her services.
It sounds like your qualifications have helped you in much the same way as mine have, Jane. Some of them were essential for my job (I had to have a degree and a PGCE to teach) but others were for personal satisfaction and professional development.
Your daughter will certainly have an impressive CV
I think most undergraduates are very aware that they need extra skills in order to compete in the world of work. I suppose soon it will be the case that everyone has so many additional skills, and so much additional experience, that students will be looking for yet more ways to stand out in the crowd! Even at GCSE level young people are strongly encouraged to participate in extra-curricular activities and to have work experience and hobbies that will make their CVs and university applications more impressive.
Twitter: StudyingOnline
I agree, Susan. I share the responsibility for my daughter not finishing college – it wasn't the right choice for her and she felt under pressure to go there in the first place. Her skills are definitely far more entrepreneurial.
Twitter: StudyingOnline