Re: Leaving Education
 

Ur 17 right? I'm on my 3 or 4th career change, not much older than you....If you have no ties then go for it, get as much experince as you can, its the only way to ever find out what you want to do and where you want to be.

What someone else wants will not be the right thing for you, you have to make your own choices and go with it. You will find what works for you and is the right thing, it takes a bit of time. But thats the joy of not being tied to anything.

Re: Leaving Education
 

Experience is key these days, degrees don't count for as much as they used to, depreciated things :rolleyes:

If you want a hands on job then apprenticeships are the way forward with as many placements etc as possible. That's what employers want at the end of the day.

Re: Leaving Education
 

The empty degrees don't, but the core ones still do.

Depends entirely what you want to do, certain jobs require a phb/msc/bsc etc and others require experience some require both, some non at all.

Find out what you want to do, then get the qualifications.

Or just blag the acroynms on your cv...lol :D

Re: Leaving Education
 

Well i went for it applied for it today wanted to do the 1 year level 1 or 2 course but i was advised to do the 2 year level 3 course as i was told the people mainly on the level 1 & 2 arent as qualified as me (in terms of GCSE etc) (also put in a nice way) so i applied for level 3 and have the option of leaving after a year but with more expierence than doin a level 1 or 2 course, hope this is what i want to do now!

Re: Leaving Education
 

Same here only mine was the Beng Aerospace manufacturing engineering. As mistakes go I´ve NEVER regretted doing it even though, as G2D has stated, I dont think I´ll use it.

However, it has never done me any harm either, it looks great on the old CV and, is a great talking point in interviews for different industries.

Re: Leaving Education
 

Nothing puts you off engineering more than ... working as one. 8 hours in front of a computer every day. No thanks.

Where did you go instead then?

Re: Leaving Education
 

Like so many others in this thread I have been very diverse in career´s. For such a long time I knew that I wanted to be an engineer and, worked very hard to achieve it. Unfortunately when the time came to graduate September 11th had just happened, and sadly the jobs weren’t around any longer.

I have tried so many other avenues from, IT support, Professional indemnity Insurance, teaching, but have now found something that is sticking far better with me.

I now work within the umbrella of "technical theatre" which involves lighting design and engineering as well as sound design and engineering. It´s fantastic for me as it combines both my creative side and technical side in a great career.

I´ve always felt that having to choose what you want to do with your life at such an early age silly. If you do then that’s fantastic, but not many are so lucky.

Go out explore what you like and don’t be afraid to try again. When you do find something you love doing, you’re going to be fantastic at it because you will value it more.

Re: Leaving Education
 

Personal advice is invest in decent qualifications, academically recognised. You sound young. A one year college course would not get you anywhere. A pucker apprenticeship with training and the academic would.

A 2 year ICT course, sorry but WTF is all that about. I guess it would qualify you to work on a of no help desk. I am sorry you are disillusioned. But if you are ever to find job satisfaction put the effort in now whilst you are young enough to have the time and enthusiasm that will enable you to get your dream job in the future.

Re: Leaving Education
 

Cool :) I think you shouldn't be allowed to go to uni until you're about 25. It would give people a chance to experience working life and have more of an idea where they want to go (and reduce the unnecessary requirement on everybody to have a degree).

I remember being sold the idea that a student loan was 'practically free'. At 17 when I applied for uni, I had no idea of what £20k of debt is. It feels a bit devious now, as I had no idea what I was getting myself in to.

Oh, and I don't think you'll ever regret trying different things :)