Should Graduates Take Low Paid Jobs ?
Should Graduate Students with Degrees Do Menial Jobs ?
A recent court ruling came down in favour of a young woman with a degree in Geology who was forced to do Work Experience in order to continue receiving Benefit Payments
Right or wrong there’s an issue here . . .
I see the real problem here as educational. Governments in Britain have had a stated aim to get at least 50% of young people into university in order to gain a degree.
Perhaps I’m thick but the fact that 50% of jobs don’t require degrees means a lot of people must surely be disappointed !?
The other issue here I see is that this woman was called a Geologist - attending a course on Geology does not make you a Geologist !
I’m not blaming young people and students, quite the reverse in fact - I believe many are being betrayed.
There are countless thousands of young people taking degrees in subjects which will never give them a related job.
It’s easy to laugh at Philosophy Students, Media Studies Graduates and people with degrees in Egyptology for their naivety but they are being lead down this road, huge numbers of places on these courses are being made available by people who know only the tiniest fraction of those graduates will ever make a living out of the subject of their degree !
Education is crucial, its value cannot be over-stated and that makes it even more important that we look at why we spend so much on education yet our children in Britain fall further and further down the international league tables.
We have countless people leaving University with degrees who simply go on to do the job they would have done on leaving school at 16 whilst business and industry call for relaxation on immigration rules so they can employ foreign graduates.
It could be there’s more jobs in Engineering than Geology, Philosophy and Egyptology . . . radical I know 
Best
Rod
Little Brother said,
February 18, 2013 @ 7:59 am
Rod,
My industry is a haven for ex graduates. The fact is, and it is a fact that a great deal of them would not amount to a great deal in the field they studied.
So many I receive applications from, interview and/or employ lack basic standards of education, work ethic and in the first instance a knowledge of applying for a job in the first instance. Young men applying for ‘waitressing’ jobs, another greets me as ‘man’ or a girl who didn’t check her emails ‘because she didn’t expect me to reply the next day’.
All university educated.
Putting so many through university was never going to pay off in the long run and all it has done is create a vacuum in the areas where physical work is required which in turn has led to everyone’s annoyance at Eastern Europeans coming over and doing the jobs our lot think they’re above doing.
I don’t care what politicians or media commentators say, I see it all the time.
v said,
February 18, 2013 @ 9:00 am
The thing is that for many jobs, they only require that a person is educated to degree standard. The actual discipline is irrelevant; it is more a question that a person has a degree. So for example, a degree in Egyptology or Archaeology hopefully has ‘’transferrable skills'’ that can be used in a job such as research skills, precise recording skills and inference.
I happen to think that graduates should take ‘’lesser'’ jobs whilst they are waiting . My son finished Oxford and while he was waiting for a job that was suitable, he didn’t sit around on his ‘dignity’ expecting us to keep him. He got jobs shovelling popcorn, waiting tables and another job filing in an office. Any work experience is valuable. ( He then found a job suitable for his abilities. )
When I left college, I got a job filing in a bank whilst I waited for a teaching post. It’s important and these first jobs also have ‘’transferrable skills'’ and people skills too.
Rod said,
February 18, 2013 @ 9:58 am
LB,
it’s great to hear evidence from the Coal Face and I’m not surprised as I hear much the same from other people I know who employ people.
Interestingly, I was talking to a girl who is at ‘Uni’ and she told me you can get a C pass with only 30% so basically you can get 70% wrong and still pass . . .
Best
Rod
Rod said,
February 18, 2013 @ 10:07 am
V,
A lot of jobs do require a degree V that’s true but not as many as we have students !
Also, a lot of those jobs require proper strong academic degrees and a lot of native Britains are not doing those courses - there are more people doing degrees in philosophy than in engineering for example which inevitably leads to disappointed philosophers working at Tescos and British firms advertising in India and China for engineers!
I do, however, think there’s a real danger for those graduates who take a job out of their chosen field of getting trapped and not being able then to move into their field.
The wrong thing on your CV can be a real problem and I suspect you’d be better off working in Macdonalds for a while rather than in an office as it shows work ethic without appearing to be a career choice.
Best
Rod
v said,
February 18, 2013 @ 10:50 am
I think the problem is that people are not made aware that there are other career paths than going via the university route. It isn’t essential but the government have an agenda for reducing the number of youngsters in unemployment by sending them off to university so they don’t appear on our national unemployment figures.
Then they make us work til 68 ( gosh imagine being 68 with a class of 35 kids aged 4 years old ! ) thereby there are also fewer jobs for these kids who’ve been coaxed into uni because there’s no jobs.
Have politicians no sense ? think …
Make people work til age of 68 in jobs. Therefore no jobs for young people because older people are still in them , so send more kids to uni so they don’t appear on national figures.
Make 3000 council workers redundant because of cuts, then thats 3000 less people paying tax into the nation and 3000 more people claiming benefits out of the nation and 3000 more people not spending. LUNACY !
End of …… to anyone with any basic common sense.
David Sanderson said,
February 18, 2013 @ 3:26 pm
First of all, I entirely disagree that foreigners ‘Do the jobs we won’t', many local people work in fish factories, often for minimum wage with a flat rate (i.e. no time and half or double time) , anyone who has ever done this kind of work knows it is tedious beyond belief, offers no real prospects, can mean long and unsocial hours and is bloody hard work too. I remember working ‘down dock’ for £1.25 per hour, whilst I’m no fan of Tony Blair, he did introduce a minimum wage.
There is nothing wrong in doing a job you are ‘over qualified’ for, indeed it can either spur someone on to find another job or at the very least give them a few lessons in life, I look at our lot in Westminster and the majority of them have never done a proper days work in their life, I disagree entirely with ‘workfare’ or ‘working for benefits’, if a job needs doing then by all means take someone off the dole but pay them the going rate for the job, there is a hardcore of shirkers out there (no names but think of a certain ‘letter writer’) but the vast majority of people want to work, sadly agencies seem to have taken over, they along with various government schemes which seemingly never lead to a permanent job leave people open to exploitation, if a graduate or anyone else for that matter is expected to stack shelves or sweep the streets, nothing wrong in that as long as they are paid accordingly.
Mick said,
February 18, 2013 @ 7:05 pm
These graduates would do well look towards the Foundry Industry for opportunities Rod. There is a dearth of young Technical people in the industry, due in the main to a lack of investment in young people and apprenticeships from the mid 90s onwards. Thankfully this deficit is being addressed and once again young people are slowly being attracted into the industry. I have worked in the Foundry and Foundry related industries since I left school and I find the work extremely challenging and rewarding. Presently I am involved in mentoring a young lad on an Advanced Technical Apprenticeship and I am convinced he will progress and do well within the industry. The mentoring role gives me satisfaction also as I feel I ought to be giving something back to an industry that has kept me gainfully employed for many years.
Rod said,
February 18, 2013 @ 7:32 pm
Mick,
I think many people miss real opportunities, such as those you mention.
There’s too much emphasis on degrees, I know a plumber who works in London - he only owrks 4 days a week and last year made £100k
I did a proper apprenticeship and it set me up for life, that said I also have a degree in enginering as well, interesting that degree has never been of the slightest use to me !
Best
Rod
Dan said,
February 19, 2013 @ 6:22 pm
Hi all! Firstly i just wanted to say hi to Rod as i have been visiting your fantastic site for some years now and thoroughly enjoy it but have never commented!
i wanted to add my ten pence to this topic as many of the comments, and indeed the article itself struck a chord with me. I studied for my Fine Art degree from 2001 to 2005 and i was absolutely convinced that i wanted to become an artist but due in part to being a naive lad from Louth, i didn’t think ahead to the financial consequences of taking such a degree and what i would face when entering the ‘real’ world post graduation.
To cut a long story short, i left university with the usual debt and no idea what i was supposed to do next and ended up working a string of retail jobs for a few years followed by a year of unemployment in 2008 during the recession. I eventually managed to find a factory job in early 2009 which is where i remain.
However, the thing is that i found that factory job (assembling smoke machines) incredibly interesting and managed to work my way up through the company to where i am now which is a technical/engineering role within R&D and also as part of the overall management team and i love it more than anything i’ve ever done.
I guess my point is that as V said, young people aren’t aware that there are many other alternative career paths than going to uni. Certainly within my company, all of our management team have worked up the company from the bottom and there are no university educated people other than myself. It’s the initiative that we showed and the passion for the company that led us to where we are rather than a degree. We’re also passionate about developing everyone within our factory and have an apprentice within our Foundry who is making great progress.
I just think that more companies need to develop the people they have, provide opportunities and take on apprentices. I see the lack of real world knowledge and experience all too often with students and graduates that work with us.
Rod said,
February 19, 2013 @ 8:17 pm
Dan,
thanks for taking the plunge and for the kind words, really appreciated.
That’s a great tale and very encouraging, it’s nice it’s there for posterity and will surely be read by many for years.
It does show what can be done and should give hope to a lot of young people who sadly seem to think there’s no future.
Thanks and regards,
Rod