Presumably we are just churning out an endless stream of 21 year olds with degrees in worthless subjects.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Immigration Cap
Although we are producing ever greater numbers of graduates, businesses are complaining loudly to the Government that the proposed cap on immigration will prevent them recruiting enough highly skilled people. Wasn't the whole point of increasing student numbers to make sure that we did have enough of them?
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Indeed, like 'Policing Studies' or the rather more Orwellian 'Public Space Management' degrees that our hapless 'student constables' are bullied into studying.
As the young people say... duh.
Yep,
I have worked with plently of average ability 'twenty somethings,' racked with huge debt, and sat next to me in the office, bemoaning the fact they are only a misely clerk in the civil service, but have a degree in: Media Studies, Music Journalism, Sports Science, Business Studies, American Studies, Travel & Tourism, Art & Design,Public Administration, Social Studies, or Health & Social Care.
Not only are their degrees worthless, because they haven't learnt anything practical or worth knowing, they start off their careers saddled with £25,000 or £30,000 worth of debt.
They're also on less money than me, because I've been there longer.
I've often asked them; "Well, what sort of job or career did you think you were going to get with a degree in; 'Evironmental Studies,' to which the retort is usually; 'but It's a 'degree' (sic).
I haven't the heart to tell them; "No, actually it's not. It's a pointless, glorified diploma, from a former poly, not a real university."
It's criminal the way these youngsters have been lied to and munipulated in the name of social engineering.
Most of them would have been much better off learning a trade or starting work after leaving collage.
I quite agree. We seem to be building, without trying, different kinds of degree. The original kind (Law, Medicine, Classics, History, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, etc), have some kind of intellectual integrity, and make the students think.
The second kind tend to be more practical (business studies, accountancy, and the like).
The third kind, which seem to be to be the new phenomenon are those which are old fashioned training courses, re-badged as degrees. I count here Policing Studies, Nursing, Golf Course Management, Equine Psychology (which makes me snarl everytime I think about it). What was wrong with the old system of training people to do the job? Why do they have to fool people into thinking that they're getting a degree?
Mindyou, I'm not sure where I put sociology in all this....
Business leaders are howling, but not because of a skill shortage.
Many non-EU citizens can work in the UK without having to pay tax or National Insurance.
I worked for a well known IT company that employed very large numbers of Indian software engineers. I sat next to a tax free Indian bloke who earned exactly the same take home pay as me.
For the privilege of employing me, my company had to pay the government sixteen thousand pounds a year in tax and national insurance. For my Indian colleague, they paid nothing.
Guess which of us was made redundant when cuts were required?
Even people who have got degrees in practical/technical subjects such as programming or art/design then hit the problem that these careers are now over-subscribed. Turning out 500 trained jewellery designers (or whatever) per year is crazy if the market only has a demand for 50. A lot of skilled technical jobs have surprisingly low salaries these days, with little opportunity for advancement as employers can always recruit a recent university leaver with "good enough" skills to replace experienced technical staff.
My advice to anyone preparing to go to university would be to to aim for one of the subjects that requires some real brains, such as engineering, or law, or medicine. If they havn't got the brains for that then learn to bullshit effectively and aim to get into middle management or HR.
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