I am indebted to Kirstin Duffield for triggering a chain of thoughts in my mind when she published a post called “Surprising Stats?”
Over the years, there has been a gradual shift in young people’s choice of direction after school. More and more of our teenagers are electing to defer starting work under a variety of pretexts. Gap years, voluntary work, travel, but most of all, electing to acquire university degrees. I suspect in difficult economic climates, governments are happy to convert as many young people from job seekers to student status, thus reducing negative unemployment statistics.
To compound the situation, many parents are encouraging their children to continue on to a Masters Degree to make sure their beloved children can distinguish themselves from other would be job hunters. In fact, there are people in their early twenties who are seriously considering a full MBA before they enter the employment market.
As for the subjects studied, that hardly comes in to it. The most sought after topics get taken by the bright and well connected, then you have a gradual descent in to more and more obscure subjects. You only need to visit any university website and your eyes will do well to remain in their sockets as you come across the bizarre subjects you can study at university, all subsidised by our tax money, of course.
The problem we face these days is twofold:
Firstly, professional practices such as law, accountancy, manufacturing, architects and others have lost interest or a sense of responsibility to take on school leavers and train them on the job. They want ready-trained staff and then despair at their lack of skill and experience!
Secondly, society these days frowns upon those who have no “university qualifications” as though they were failures. The social pressure on young people and their families is to enrol at university, whatever the cost is or however obscure the subject of study is, as long as you come out with something that says BA or BSc to put after your name to show on your all-so-empty-CV.
So, universities, colleges and minor post-school educational establishments began to grow to absorb the huge influx of demand and they clamoured to register as universities so more students would be attracted to them. We are now in a situation where Harvard, Cambridge, Sorbonne, Chicken Yard, and Blow My Socks Creek establishments all hand out degrees called the same things. The children disappear for 3 or more years then the proud parents finally receive tickets to attend graduation ceremonies and they turn up to take pictures for the family album. A few weeks later, many of these graduates end up flipping hamburgers, frothing café lattes or packing your groceries at the supermarket checkout. I respect all of these jobs but why waste 3 years or more before starting?
Centuries ago, universities were seats of learning; an individual would go there to read and contemplate, not to train to be an architect, a lawyer, an engineer, a doctor, or a vet. Even now when you speak to an Oxford or Cambridge university students, they still say: I am reading “History” or “Mathematics” and so on. They still use the word “reading” and not “training to be” or even “studying”. Before the advent of the printing press, books were rare and extremely expensive to produce so, unless you were very rich, the source of books for the lucky and bright was the university.
Professional practitioners however, attracted young people to their profession and trained them at their practices in law firms, hospitals, factories etc., where they would join and be tutored by their experienced mentors for weeks, months, or even years, and finally they would be examined independently and be passed as qualified professionals.
A few years ago after finishing school in England, my daughter enrolled on a 4-year footwear design course in London at a training entity called “The Worshipful Company of Cordwainers”, which goes back to the 15 Century, with some evidence to suggest even 13 Century, set up by the shoemakers of the time to train young people in the art of making shoes for the gentry. The word “Cordwainers” has its origin in Old Spanish and roughly means leather handling. This school is still going strong, albeit under the umbrella of the bigger “London College of Fashion” and still focuses on teaching young people the modern way of designing and making all types of shoes including sports, fashion, children, etc. To this day, this college is still the “go to place” for studying the art and science of footwear in the 21 Century. Within days of finishing at the Cordwainers, my daughter was offered a job at Adidas in Germany.
I can imagine some readers may think I am being elitist about this matter. Well, I do not mean to be. In fact, I don’t really see where it is an indication of someone’s worthiness simply because they went to university. Nor do I think that a brilliant lawyer is a lesser lawyer because he took his articles at a law firm without ever stepping inside a university. I admire the master baker, expert plumber, and creative furniture maker as much as I admire the brilliant physician, amazing architect, and inventive engineer, irrespective of where they learned their skills.
I believe it is high time we stopped putting pressure on young people to follow the false single and true path to success via university. We must encourage those who are interested in academic matters to go to university and for the rest of us to simply go to work. Of course, this will require the co-operation of many employers to open their doors to the school leavers who have the courage to step in to the world of work.
