Funnily enough my other child is looking at a higher level apprenticeship. He has done some of the preliminary interviews with PWC and would end up with a finance degree if he gets accepted for it. However, he is very much a home bird with no wander lust.
My daughter, on the other hand, got to spend two semesters at University California as part of her degree. She would not have had that opportunity, nor the opportunity to spend a couple of months exploring the US afterwards, if she had not gone to uni. She has gone from a quiet lane in a small village in Ireland to living three years in London. Again, not an opprtunity she would have had if she had not gone to uni.
I see the culture war has extended to "useless" degrees this morning.
Funnily enough my music student son has learnt a lot of valuable skills through years of teamwork playing in orchestras and bands, conducting the uni band and being active on the committee that runs it.
Currently kicking the arse of a lot of economics and business students on an internship with PWC
I see the culture war has extended to “useless” degrees this morning.
I saw it as a reflection of England's education system which is a knowledge based curriculum which obsesses with a narrow field of subjects and ways of achieving.... 😉
I am massively in the 'so many paths' into life view - there is no 'better'.
However I am also of the view that universities (and all the 'support services' around them) have become a money factory with poor value for effort or money being offered, with too little focus at political and leadership level on education and societal good. It borders a ponzi scheme.
I wish some money was redeployed from universities to colleges and apprenticeships, to training schemes and schools. Perhaps we need that there Erasmus+ scheme back as well to enable all sorts of educational and cultural exchange....
(This said as someone who works on a University site, has son at Uni, one at college, and one entering the university of life...)
However I am also of the view that universities (and all the ‘support services’ around them) have become a money factory with poor value for effort or money being offered, with too little focus at political and leadership level on education and societal good
I think the push to get "everyone" to university is maybe coming back to bite them - no business can grow indefinitely, and some will probably go to the wall, sadly.
We completely neglected the non-academic options for about 20 years, it seems.
