The University of Life (you didn't get in)

Many of us spend years of our short lives sat at a desk dutifully listening to a speaker telling us all the things we are supposed to know. It is all to easy to reach the ripe old age of 21 without ever having considered that Education might not be the answer. I am currently in my fourth year of  University Course and I lose count for how many years I have been in the Academic wash. Frankly I am still undecided.


A recent Russel Group directive (http://tinyurl.com/6cy9g5n) got me thinking. Students already struggle to choose their A-levels and a career route through what is an increasingly unforgiving job market. Why are we upping the stakes of what is already a confusing and perceivably rigged game of employment roulette? By saying to young people that they must put themselves through the mill of traditional disciplines at A-level and University we seem to think we are grooming a generation of scholars, but my suspicion is that we might simply be preparing a very expensive fleet of librarians and Professors. After all, research becomes more than a little "Academic" if no one ever leaves University to put it into practise.


Now I do appreciate the value of training your mind to perform mental arithmetic, or look critically at the world around us, however I have concerns about how certain key skills are compartmentalised in Modern Education and some Graduate training schemes. Is it really sensible to partition basics such as IT, Accounting or even Citizenship into neat little packages that are to be squirrelled away onto a CV somewhere? It seems to me that there is a disconnect between the relentless hounding of Academic Certification, and real world personable skills which make people function well within a job or society as a whole. Is it really right or appropriate in an age of equal opportunities that people will often be relegated to a pay-grade for their entire life according to the degree they chose? (http://www.walletpop.co.uk/2010/05/18/the-best-and-worst-paying-university-degrees/)


Why is it that certification is needed as a passport to perform even the most basic of tasks. From food safety to Masters degrees in Corporate Sustainability, the sound of rubber stamping is frankly deafening. Ask many people in Business who they will go to when they actually need something doing and I would place a small wager that it is unlikely to be the person "most qualified". Far more likely to be the the practical person that has a red tape allergy and likes to get things done.


So do we really need teachers, lecturers and qualifications for the world to keep turning? Well the answer is of course we all benefit from our individual interactions with these people. What is alarming is that 'real world experience' is increasingly becoming the antidote to Academic learning. Many trade apprentices work their way into a tidy salary whilst their University going colleagues are left languishing with debt and sometimes bleak prospects. A prime example of what can be achieved from practical application and a resistance of prolonged Acedemia is WH Smith Prodigy Richard Handover who worked his way from Paperboy to CEO (http://tinyurl.com/4q2h5kq).


My advice is this. If you are a young person embarking on the thorny trek through Academic life then follow your instincts on what you are good at what you enjoy, you DO know best.


My plea to employers and the Academic industry is to recognise the gulf between preaching and practise, hopefully before the new fees structure starts to look like a bit of a rip off...