'A degree is the passport to a successful career'

[Gaz6002]

I just heard the above quote on BBC News, and it got me thinking. Is that really true in the modern world?

 

My take on it is work experience in your chosen sector is far more important, and far more likely to get you work.

 

What do you think?

[JustGav]

I'm currently looking at people at the moment for a position at work, and I prefer realworld to 'What I did at uni'....

[Josh]

I'm glad I didn't go to uni. It doesn't seem to help anyone get a job and you seem to just end up with over £20,000 worth of debt.

[Homer]

I went to Uni and apart from having a great time it proved useless in the real world. All I think it did was give a foot in the door at my first workplace, but has been of zero value since then (experience is everything in most IT positions the last 10 years). I've got a team of over 180 people and no new hires are selected based on whether they have a degree or not, it's all about their track record in the workplace or for a fresh hire how they come across in interview and demonstrate a can-do attitude.

 

It's not the same for all professions of course!

[neo2810]

I'm afraid I agree. I chose to work hard right out of school and do relevant qualifications as time went on and my position is healthier than almost every graduated person I know.

 

I fear the days of a guaranteed career from a degree are well and truly gone...

[Charlotte]

This is a good article on the subject:-

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-10926532

[jonathanc]

To a certain degree yes (excuse the pun). Without proper qualifications you will just be capped at a certain level.

 

However, with appropriate experience it is much easier for you to get the post. So experience = easier to get job with degree = better promotion options. Depends on what sector you are in though generally.

[Mcgoo]

I'm afraid I agree. I chose to work hard right out of school and do relevant qualifications as time went on and my position is healthier than almost every graduated person I know.

 

Same here. Learn and gain qualifications in your chosen field as necessary. Its worked for me.

[Charlotte]

Obviously it depends on your aspirations too.

 

To be a teacher/lawyer/doctor/architect you have to have a degree as well as the on-job training bits.

[DARETT]

A degree just acts as a measure of an ability to "learn".

 

Imo most degrees are not relevant to job's advertised anyway, they just look for any type of graduate.

 

Industry related experience is key to succeed, but to get your foot in the door without educational qualifications is difficult in certain sectors.

[Tannhauser]

Looking at degrees purely in terms of remuneration:

 

Until recently, the widely used figure was that the average graduate could expect to earn an extra £400,000 over their lifetime compared to non-graduates. I was always suspicious of this estimate, and in the last few years much more modest premiums have been projected.

 

If I remember this correctly, the average graduate is projected to earn a lifetime premium of 100K ish over non-graduates. However, the problem is that the average is massively skewed by certain types of degree - especially dentistry, medical, and certain institutions - for example Oxbridge and Russell Group unis.

 

Some types of degree - Humanities degrees for example - now command a relatively low premium on average. Again, from memory, I have figures of 57K added to lifetime earnings.

 

Having said that, out of all phases in the educational system,it adds more value in terms of earning than either A levels or postgrad.

 

Personally, it was the single most formative experience in my life. Knowing what I know now, I would go even if I ended up poorer.

[Abz]

I didn't go to Uni in the end, after starting my A Levels I decided if I went to Uni I would just spend 5 years dossing around. A lot of friends went Uni, I managed to get some work with Deloitte with some help. I stayed there for 5 years & then took a nice long break while looking at businesses before starting at the current law firm I have now been for nearly 3 years. So now I have almost 8 years experience in IT, ranging from Windows 95 to VMware, from Palm Pilots to Apple iPhones.

 

At 25 years of age, I would hope an employer would find me more interesting. Few of my friends have recently finished their degree & are currently struggling to break into the market. A degree is good but by no means is it better than real life practise & skills gained through as such.

[Paul]

You often find that those defending it are the ones that have wasted years in the expectation of being treated as one of the elite:D

 

Not aimed at you Tannhauser, I know you're better than me, you keep telling me so

[Gaz6002]

Looking at degrees purely in terms of remuneration:

 

Interesting how you'd base that point on financial incentives yet close by saying you'd have done it regardless. What did you gain from it in a social sense that couldn't be distilled from having an active and lively circle of friends?

[Purity14]

My Cousin has done a degree and cant get a job on more than 18k..

[adnanshah247]

i tell you this, a frikin degree is the biggest waste of time there is, employers dont need text book machines they need experienced workers which is what i learnt the hard way.

[TTRickeh]

However, the problem is that the average is massively skewed by certain types of degree - especially dentistry, medical, and certain institutions - for example Oxbridge and Russell Group unis.

 

.

 

Indeed, and by degree classifications. A 3rd class degree isn't worth the paper it's printed on and a 2:2 isn't much better either (unfortunately for me).

[Paul]

University of f*cking life.........that's wot counts, init !! :innocent:

[bigbloodyturbo]

I got my degree and struggled for a long time to get work. I eventually got the job im in now (oil industry) but that was more a case of my previous experience in the industry and rigth place, right time than my qualifications as my degree is in aeronautical engineering and i work offshore as an ad hoc field engineer.

 

IMHO a degree helps a lot in the engineering world but more as an indication that you stuck to something and achieved it through hard work, rather than demonstrating knowledge as at the end of the day you get trained once your in your job and very little uni work is relative to what you'll probably do in your career.

[Ewen]

If an employer is looking to recruit a graduate, then I'd guess a degree is a must. However, if an employer is looking for someone with say, minimum 5 years experience, then a graduate with a still wet degree wont necessarily be top of the pile.

Massive generalisation here, so many layers of professions and careers. In my own experience, a degree is not a guarantee of common sense, or aptitude, nor even a reliable indicator of long term suitability to the role....many successful careers have developed in a field totally unconnected to the degree originally gained. Many degree winners woefully failing at their chosen subject in the real world.

By the age of 24, I for one had been earning a wage and gaining practical experience in my chosen field for nine years, by the time others had just left Uni. I'm not saying one routes better than 'tother, just that talent, circumstance and pure luck can sometimes result in better prospects than spending years in poverty, being taught an irrelevant curriculum, being thrown out into a world of debt and the cold realisation that you actually start learning after you leave Uni....thats if you are one of the lucky ones who manage to find a job in the first place.

Anyone with the intelligence, acumen, drive and talent to achieve a good degree within four years in the system, has a fighting chance to achieve far more. However, for others with similar strengths, starting at least four years earlier is a better bet.

After all, is it not all but a gamble anyway ?

[Paul]

Doing an apprenticeship for 4yrs from the age of 17 has been of more use to me, not just the theory but practical too and you learn alot about life in the workplace, much more than you'd learn from some leather patched elbow, jumper wearing teacher

 

The thing that I really notice with degree'd up people in the workplace is their lack of organisational skills and total lack of common sense, this makes them very difficult to work with. Also they put themselves on a pedastal to try and warrant those wasted years, this prevents them from being real team players.

[David Reid]

Degrees are all about doing the right subject, I did automotive engineering I ended up with a 1st and had 3 offers of jobs before even finishing the course. I now have a job that with out a degree I simply wouldn't have got. But engineering is difficult, that's why so many do psychology, i would say approx 2/3rds of the starters managed to finish our course and we worked "Reading weeks". I think of my year only 2 or 3 didn't walk straight into a job, I.e we finished then the next week started working before we even had our results

[Paul]

As I said I went the old fashioned route into engineering, I was made redundant last August and got a relevent role withing a few weeks, since then I've got people knocking my door down for my experience, there really seems to be a shortage of experience and skills in my line of work now, something the degree boys can't compete against

[martini]

Depends what job you want to do really...

 

I did a physics degree, masters and am just finishing my Atmospheric Physics Ph.D this month. I have a job in Tokyo starting next year at the University of Tokyo where I will be part of their research team.

 

I was speaking to a cousin 'in-law' the other day; a really nice 17 year old chap. He'll have got his (no doubt good) A levels today and was thinking about becoming an accountant, but not going for the degree. He would be on about £35k in three years. I told him to seriously consider it.

 

Unless you have a real interest in the subject you're studying, I don't think people should be "studying" them. Sure, I had some pretty wild nights out at uni and did a lot of sport, but I also was 9-5 every day for my entire physics degree, which was damn hard.

 

Too much fluff in the University system now. Not to mention the masses of debt that each student leaves uni with... :/

 

I wouldn't recommend it to most.

[supra_aero]

From a banking sector a degree makes a MASSIVE difference.

 

Entry level oxbridge candidates - £50-80k first year salary

 

I am struggling to get anywhere close to that top end salary after 7 years sector experience with a degree from a top 10 uni.

 

In banking - yes it makes a world of difference.