While this argument may send a shiver down many a middle-class parent’s spine it seems to be gaining momentum among young people and employers. The number of graduates is increasing at a faster rate than the economy. Research shows that three years after finishing their studies 40 per cent of recent graduates are in jobs that don’t require a degree. Drop-out rates for some courses are more than a third.
When the average new-graduate salary is about £14,000 yet a non-graduate trainee business manager at McDonald’s can expect a starting package of £18,000, who could blame teenagers for asking whether a degree is really worth the hassle? You can still get a decently paid job without letters after your name. Just ask a journalist.
A book recently published in America is adding fuel to the fire: 300 Best Jobs Without a Four-Year Degree uses data from the US Department of Labour and the Census Bureau to show that many of America’s top-paying occupations — in, for example, law enforcement, construction, administration and transport — don’t demand candidates who have been to university.
Its No 1 example is the job of air-traffic controller, which in the UK can command a salary of more than £80,000. In fact, it says, eight of the Top Ten fastest-growing occupations don’t require a degree.
A similar picture is emerging in Britain. As the Government pushes towards its target of 50 per cent of school-leavers going into higher education, a recent study of more than 28 million UK jobs found that only 32 per cent were “knowledge based” — ie, traditionally requiring a degree. Some experts believe that Government forecasts that 80 per cent of the jobs created by 2010 will need a degree are overblown. Anyway, when there are roofers and plumbers earning £1,000 a week, why are we so preoccupied with paper qualifications?
Philip Green, head of the Arcadia group, left school at 15 with no qualifications and says he is far less bothered about whether a potential employee has a degree than he is about their initiative, common sense and hunger to do the job. Many young people, he says, drift into university because they are unsure of what else to do, or because they don’t want to disappoint their parents, and that there is a “lack of open discussion” about the alternatives.
Two years ago Green, worth an estimated £3.6 billion, set up the Fashion Retail Academy for 16 to 18-year-olds who don’t want to go to university. Its emphasis is on experience within the workplace and was inspired by what he saw as a scarcity of practical talent in retail. “I was frustrated by the lack of people coming through who had proper trading and market knowledge that they had learnt at street level as I did,” he says. “There aren’t the people getting the grounding in the old-fashioned way (today). There is a lack of trading experience.” He says that often when he interviews graduates for jobs and asks them why they did a certain degree they can’t give a definitive answer and say that they went to university because they thought that was what they were supposed to do.
Linda Graham runs the graduate programme at Marks & Spencer, but she says: “We are just as focused on encouraging people who did not go to university to make their way up into senior roles. Our careers framework ensures that people with the right qualities and skills can progress from customer assistant right through to store manager and beyond.”
A British book, What Can I Do With No Degree? (£11.99, Trotman), lists more than 100 good jobs from the Civil Service to pharmacy technicians that dispense with the need for university. Did you know, for example, that you can train as an airline pilot without a degree, or that legal executives can go on to qualify as solicitors without holding a degree (though, be warned, the process can be slow)? “Some people are doers not learners,” says Margaret McAlpine, the book’s author. “They flourish once they leave the classroom behind . . . such people often surprise themselves and others once they find themselves in a working situation that suits them.”
Many young people look at self-made millionaires such as Jamie Oliver, Richard Branson and Gordon Ramsay, none of whom went to university, and question the point of studying for three years. But, aside from entrepreneurs, employment experts say that there is not enough emphasis on the fact that young people can get perfectly good careers by training in ordinary jobs, earning while they learn.
And the degree is losing its currency as a trump card. Now that there are degrees in golf-course management, contemporary circus, stand-up comedy, there is a fear that they are increasingly regarded as ten-a-penny and that only degrees from the traditional, prestige universities carry any weight. Lloyd Dorfman, executive chairman and founder of Travelex, went to St Paul’s School, London, but not to university. He believes that although university is a “life widening ” experience for young people it is not always particularly relevant to employers.
“I’m not sure how successfully universities engage their students — the experience is probably sometimes better than the academic side,” he says. “From an employer point of view, I think there are two parts. There is the very top level of graduates, people coming out of universities with firsts. That is a powerful calling card, especially for the more intellectually demanding jobs. Outside those jobs, I am not sure what the significance of a degree is. I think it has been diluted. We are looking for people who give us a sense of commitment, who are conscientious and caring, and who are looking to make a contribution. Going to university doesn’t necessarily give you those qualities. More and more people are going to university now, and I am not sure that kids are convinced that a degree is a route to a job in the same way it once was.”
Katja Hall, head of employment, employee relations and diversity at the CBI, says that demand from employers for higher skills is growing, especially to A level and above, and that the Leitch report predicts that by 2020 42 per cent of jobs will be filled by people with degrees. But she adds: “In terms of degrees, employers are more concerned with quality not quantity, and especially the lack of generic skills. Our Employment Trends Survey found that 20 per cent of employers were dissatisfied with the communication, team-working, problem-solving and IT skills of graduates.”
A glance at the technology website digg.com shows how disillusioned many graduates are with their qualifications. Claire Welbourn, 22, who graduated from Lincoln University, writes: “I have been searching for the right job since leaving uni, however I agree — graduates are unemployable. Had I the choice to go back I would not choose to attend university. Climbing the ladder from the bottom is easier than trying to start halfway. Most graduates could have achieved the same working positions through night classes or college at a fraction of the cost of a degree.”
Chris, from North Wales, writes that he was told all his life that having a degree was the key to a good job. After graduating with an honours degree he worked as a sales assistant in Woolworths for 18 months and then in a call-centre. None of the businesses he applied to wanted him because he had no experience. Now he is an IT process designer. “With all the degrees available now the market is flooded with graduates,” he says. “I do believe working to gain experience really does work.”
Indeed as The Mismanagement of Talent, a book by two political economists which challenges the Government’s plans for university expansion, states: “The reality is that one can be employable and unemployed. In such circumstances a university degree is rather like a mortgage endowment policy — past returns are no guarantee of future performance.”
This said, of course, your three years at university are often the best of your life. Education benefits society in many ways. Graduates are more likely to vote, to give to charity, to do voluntary work. But, as Lloyd Dorfman says, it might just not be right for you.
“I was going to be a barrister, but I didn’t like the studying. I went into the City to gain as much commercial experience as possible, and it turned out to be a baptism of fire,” he says. “It was the time of the oil crisis, the miners’ strike, the three-day working week. For a 21-year-old working in a merchant bank it was an incredible apprenticeship. If I had gone to university, I would not have had that experience, or got that incredible grounding.”
