Who has a degree and doesn't use for their job?

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

I also find it unacceptable that around 50% of degree courses are dropped out of before completion, which is a shocking waste of taxpayers money. hence I agree with student loans.

That's because any idiot is allowed to do a degree. No other reason. Drop outs are more than when they had grants.

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

It hacks me off that so much importance is placed on useless paper qualifications. Furthermore, as this country has got rid of it's manufacturing base (thanks Maggie) there are fewer & fewer skilled manual careers to be had.
There are not enough 'white collar' jobs for everyone, & not everyone could work at a desk, but there are few opportunities where people of the 'blue collar' type can work, attain skills, & hopefully achieve a reasonable income. & yet everyone from the Government down wonders why a proportion of the 'youth of today' act the way they do.
Well if the prospect of a 'career' saying, 'would you like fries with your cows lip burger' is all you have to look foreward to, wouldn't you be pi55ed off?

Cheers.

Manufacturing is dead in this country because half the worlds population reside in China and India, working un-unionised, for peanuts. It's not Maggies fault - we wanted cheap good that we couldn't possibly supply ourselves.

Originally Posted by Sudoxe

I don't have one.

But I value practical experience & skills over whatever is taught in a classroom/lecture theatre. No matter what the course, its no match for real practical application of the theory.

Sure, you can name 7 layers of the OSI model, and have membership to the BCS. Now can you wire a plug, check routing tables, or debug a memory leak?

Having employed a few people over the past year I can't say in my company at least (a Japanese based multinational) that we look for degrees in any useful way.

In fact they may have a less than positive bearing, i.e. an interview question of "You took a comp.sci degree at a good university, why did you get a 2:2?"

Dan

I looked at getting into IT before I started in engineering, and none of the jobs I saw were interested if you didn't have a degree.

While I'd agree that especially in IT that practical experience is more valuble than formal education, I'd say that IT is an exception.

[G]

I have a degree, I need it for my job and I need it for my chartered status .

However, currently looking at moving to something completely different.

I didnt get into a debt though whilst at uni, didnt take any student loans, didnt take any grants.....just worked most evenings.

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by gettin2dizzy

Which is why uni places used to be limited, to stop people going to uni for the sake of it and just racking up debt. Labour used it as some kind of argument against them that it meant uni wasn't available to the poor; as if! Their policy now just means all but the poorest pay through their teeth for it and thousands end up in huge unecessary debt.

Quite agree. I also think that Labour uses the universities as a means to keep unemployment figures down. No job? Go to uni....

As for the arguement that Universities were ntaccessible to the poor, why not re-introduce the student maintenance grant? Means tested perhaps. From a relatively poor family myself, without a grant I would never have gone to college, got a degree and be paying 40% tax in return for my 'free' education. I really do feel that todays genuine student doing a useful degree gets a raw deal.

[G]

Originally Posted by Luckypants

I really do feel that todays genuine student doing a useful degree gets a raw deal.

One thing I hate is when you get people slating University as a whole, saying it pointless and full of bums.

Yes people doing art degrees or studying the clingon language. Completely funded by the goverment, then get into loads of debt and only go to uni 6 hours a week are a waste of space. There is still alot of relevant degrees, that you cant just bum through and are required to work in that profession.

[Spanner Man]

[quote=Flamin_Squirrel;1359696]That's because any idiot is allowed to do a degree.

I take it you've got a degree then!

Manufacturing is dead in this country because half the worlds population reside in China and India, working un-unionised, for peanuts. It's not Maggies fault - we wanted cheap good that we couldn't possibly supply ourselves.

Ladies & Gentlemen we've just found 'TORY BOY!'... Of course it wasn't Maggies fault, like it wasn't her Government that started the trend for reducing income tax back in 1979, & hence the introduction of 'stealth taxes'. 1979 also coincided with the near doubling of VAT, which was supposed to be a tax on luxuries, & has since crept into almost everything we purchase....I could go on!

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

Ladies & Gentlemen we've just found 'TORY BOY!'... Of course it wasn't Maggies fault, like it wasn't her Government that started the trend for reducing income tax back in 1979, & hence the introduction of 'stealth taxes'. 1979 also coincided with the near doubling of VAT, which was supposed to be a tax on luxuries, & has since crept into almost everything we purchase....I could go on!

Resentful blue colar slob who lost their job because the company they worked for couldn't afford to pay them 20 times more than they're worth?

Read all about it.....


FS outed as rosette wearing conservative!

[G]

Nowt wrong with conservative lol I for one would be better off with their ideas.

I vote Ron Paul, he's just standing in the wrong country

Originally Posted by Flamin_Squirrel

Resentful blue colar slob who lost their job because the company they worked for couldn't afford to pay them 20 times more than they're worth?

That FS is a particularly jaundiced and uneducated comment based on no real understanding of the economic and political climate of the time. Yes there were employment related issues,but to use such a blanket statement is for me simply wrong.

Perhaps reassesing where you gather your biased information from,might serve you well, when outside of a Tory conference.