Was reading a long old rant online last night, a guy was chatting about how he took a Student Loan out around the time when tuition fees had risen to £9k a year, he's now finished his degree and found out his loan has been sold by the government to a private company who are charging him yearly interest... anyway to cut a long rant short, unless he starts earning £44k+ pronto, then his student loan is going to accumulate more and more interest and he estimates it'll double in around 10 years, essentially crippling him when he's able to get on the housing ladder. For your line of work is it imperative to have a degree? Have you done a degree and now regret doing it because to your job it's pretty much worthless? Should we go back to encouraging kids to do apprenticeships, rather than burying themselves in debt at Uni? I never went to university, I'm very happy I didn't too, my wife's dad also funded her university degree so she's very lucky. I don't believe I'd be in any better position work-wise if I'd have went to uni.
Apprenticeships all the way. If they can be found that is. I left school the day of my final exam. Couldnt wait. A whole world out there. Not poncing about at school.
Wouldn't be able to do my job without a degree (I have two! - ****ing look at me, eh?). I loved Uni, loved the social life, the sports, actually doing my degrees- very glad I did it. But, its not for everyone. Some of the most intelligent and successful people I know didn't go to uni or have degrees but that just shows that there is more than one kind of intelligence and going to uni is only the right choice for some people. For others, something more practical is a better choice and kids ought to be helped more to make the right choice for them, without any stigma attached. IMOOC.
I might be wrong, but I'm sure kids are forced to do A-levels (they can't leave before 18 now) unless I've completely made that up. I think non-academic kids really should be learning trades at school, rather than Pi and Shakespeare, I wonder if our schools will start going a bit more like American schools and colleges do, with scholarships etc funding education, if they're good at something like a sport for example.
No arguments here mate, if you need a degree you gotta go for it. Seems a lot of people just go for the social part though, not realising perhaps that it could mess their **** up for some time afterwards.
I need a degree to do my job. That being said, I don't see having a degree as being the be all and end all in terms of success. My job isn't exactly amazing . I'm a big fan of apprenticeships and feel they need to be looked at more often. There is nothing wrong with working in the trades (if I lived my life again, I'd work as a joiner). The issue is, people go for the wrong reasons. I went because I felt it would help me career wise later on. Most go to get pissed.
Agree it's Apprentiships all the way for me, I know a young lad who left school at 16 got took on as app. Joiner, learnt his trade he's now in his mid twenties buys and does up houses and rents them out. He works like a dog whilst renovating then has down time to chill, I really admire him he's not afraid of hard work and is reaping those benefits now. To say he has had no real further education doesn't mean he's thick, quite the opposite he's learning as he goes along. More youngsters should seriously think before,they jump into years of university work and a shed load of debt.
https://www.gov.uk/know-when-you-can-leave-school They have to do something useful though. Like an apprenticeship.
I think if everybody did apprenticeships, it'd just flip the labour market on it's head, long term, so there's obviously a balance needed but for sure, many kids should be doing trades, especially those who are more manually inclined than academically. All I cared about at school was my next cigarette, the work was far too easy for me without sounding big-headed. I went straight to the AFCO at 16, sailed through every pilot and air traffic control aptitude test and was prepared to sit A-levels and do whatever I had to, but I failed the medical on account of being colour blind, apparently if you can't tell the difference between your own plane and an enemy one, that's some sort of problem.
I think under Tony Blair, the government stated that they wanted 50% of school leavers to go to university. That's ridiculous. If that happened some highly skilled people, or potentially highly skilled, would be channelled into the wrong kind of training for them and their aptitudes would be lost forever. The world needs people with different skills and abilities. There needs to be a range of good quality training options available of lots of different types. Education ministers etc are often too naive/blinkered to see that.
The current interest rate on student loans is 0.9%, so reckon he needs to check his maths if he reckons his debt will double in 10 years.... Depending which plan he's on @ £30k per annum income he'd be paying a maximum of £93 a month back Even @£50k per annum the repayment is only £243. Students shouldn't stress about it, many will never repay it in their entire lifetime
I was going to post similar Just to add if the majority of kids went to uni and also obtained degrees Who would do the mundane jobs ( not well put ) But you know what I mean
Interesting mate, like I said neither I or my wife have had student loans, so I don't know the ins and outs, but this guy was saying the loans had been sold off and the interest rates had changed, maybe it was a load of guff.
Why go to uni and to get a degree if you don't intend to be a high earner Tradesman can earn 50k per year With no training Of course you need manual skills
£50k a year was the wage in Tobes' example, I think that's about £3,000 per month after deductions give or take a hundred quid or so, so £243 would leave you with plenty left over.
Ive never had a fully fledged office job. (Although these days i have an office, but it never gets used. Maybe 2/3 hours a week). Unis etc are mumbo jumbo to me.
