Forum menu
This; much more use than going to Uni and coming out with a degree in media studies, or archaeology, (what’s the first thing you ask someone with an archaeology degree? Can I have fries with that?).
Not too far off the truth, it’s pretty much what a friend of mine did, there just aren’t any jobs in archaeology.
typical left brainer myopic view. i have a ‘useless media degree’ as do lots of my friends and acquaintances. we tend to make or create the stuff you fail to see, yet you plonk yourself down on the sofa and watch or listen to it every day, you pick it up and look/read at it, some of it you dismiss, some of it influences you more than you think.
whatever your livelihood/skills are that too will make use of people like me even if it’s just helping sell it or indirectly creating a market for it.
shame the ability to look at the bigger picture was lacking in whatever degree/apprenticeship you did.
Do kids still do work experience? I spent 2 weeks in solihull council and thought it was pretty good for me. And it taught me I never want to be a QS 😄
Where I grew up a lot of the teenagers ended up doing 'community service' but I think that might be a different thing to what the op was thinking. 😀
On the subject of work experience, it's quite tricky to arrange needing safeguarding measures etc. - we used to run at my last employer, one designated week a year for 16+. Hugely over-subscribed and quite an onerous task to manage. We also ran a 12 week summer internship programme for university students - we provided the funding for their wages etc but it was quite hard to get host managers to create a role profile / project against they could be assessed at the end.
Part of the problem is we have education system in this country is often quite detached from the world of work, particularly no decent career guidance and working to fill genuine skills needs. Consequently we have droves of people doing expensive degrees in subjects for which there is relatively little demand, even in subjects such as law.
I have that same discussion with my life. I say a modern apprenticeship where you split your time at college and work is the way to go (I'm a bit biased as that's what I did). That way what you learn at college can be tried out at work and vice versa. Plus you don't get a load of debt at the end.
My wife says that going to uni/art college was the right way to go as that's what she did but then she had parents who could contribute to her rent and bills so she didn't run up a huge debt.