Job or Education

[beorhthelm]

A mate of mine who dropped out of Uni has gone on to be senior IT manager at a local business, while with my degree im roughing it in the trenches between support and administration. he has a slightly different attitude to getting work done to me, ie he sees stuff through and stays late, goes abroad, i go home at shortly after 5.

point is, how far you get is down to your attitude to work. i loved uni and college, but got a grant and wouldnt bother with it now. having said that, not getting A levels might be a very big mistake and close doors.

 

[Gully]

Your call at the end of the day, finishing A/Levels sounds like sound advice...the only problem with going straight from school to uni is that effectively you are being asked to choose a course that you intend to use for a future career, how many people know at 18 where they would like to be working in their fourties?

I know that is over simplification as many people end up working in a job with a degree in a subject totally unrelated to it, the piece of paper is often just proof that you could study to a certain level, most companies will be more interested whether you got a first or not.

The problem we have now is that there are so many graduates around, there aren't enough jobs for them so a fair proportion will end up in a role that they could easily have performed without one...in my last job the office junior, doing all the really mundane stuff for the managers, was a graduate...that was the best job he could get!

I stayed on at school and flunked my A/Levels, that was two years of life wasted where I could have been out earning a wage, even then I had colleges and Polys offering me a place...to have gone into higher education would have been the biggest mistake of my life. Instead I chose to leave home, get a job and support myself, the best decision I could have ever made...it tought me how to act responsibly and made me grow up very quickly, though I did later go back to college and study part time to make up on my missing qualifications. I don't think life would have turned out any better if I did have a degree, I get jobs based on life experience and a proven track record, something that your average graduate straight out of uni doesn't have.

 

[jevs]

What about an apprenticeship ?......you could go to college and get some vocational qualifications ?

What exactly do you want to do/be when you're older ?

 

[itszamora]

A Job, anyday. A Job will allow you to buy/do things, from your HARD earned cash, Education wont. The one thing I hate about Brighton, to many f***ing students. Espically down Churchill Square.

That's an incredibly shortsighted view. Sure, in the short term leaving school at 16 (or even 18) will give you more money to piss up the wall, but in the long term you'll be SO much better off (and not just financially) by getting some qualifications. My three years at uni (four if you include my postgrad at another one) were undoubtedly the best years of my life and made me grow up so much. Plus now I am on the road to a good career in an industry I love working in.

In the words of Mr T - don't be a fool, stay in school.

 

[chesneyhawkes]

Either stay in education or go the apprenticeship route. My job is mind numbing and i have decided to go back to college to try and escape the misery, and at 33 with a wife and two children i wish i had gone and done it years ago then i would have a bit less to moan about.

 

[HampshireSeagulls]

I did two weeks of A Levels and left for the same reason you seem to have. I got a job, and then did an OU degree whilst I was working. Didn't saddle me with £40K of debt either. Left my job, retrained as a teacher, and I think I was better off with the studying later in life when I had a bit more experience and general responsibility. When I lost focus, I always knew that I was doing it for a reason.

I would say that education is not the be all and end all. As long as you have the basics and a willingness to graft, you can still do just as well. We will always need people who have not graced the towers of academia - especially the blue collar jobs!

Ultimately, you need to make the call. Write up a list of pros and cons, and go with it, but don't look back and regret anything. You can return to education later when you are really ready, you may even get funding from your job to help you. You cannot spend your life in an O2 shop though - that is a hobby, not a career!

 

[Paxton Dazo]

That's an incredibly shortsighted view. Sure, in the short term leaving school at 16 (or even 18) will give you more money to piss up the wall, but in the long term you'll be SO much better off (and not just financially) by getting some qualifications. My three years at uni (four if you include my postgrad at another one) were undoubtedly the best years of my life and made me grow up so much. Plus now I am on the road to a good career in an industry I love working in.

In the words of Mr T - don't be a fool, stay in school.

That's fair enough, but I'd rather get some money behind me now, whilst I'm not paying any bills, etc, etc. So it's a good base. But, who knows what the future may bring...

But, If I would have gone to College, the 'course' I would have picked...wouldn't have been something I REALLY wanted to do..I'd have just done something for the sake of it.

 

[Billy the Fish]

It's all about personal choice. Education isn't right for some people, I was in the same boat as you but managed to stick it out into the second year until they told me I hadn't done enough work and had no chance of passing anything.

I was quite particular about what sort of job I was after though, and it took me 9 months of applying for loads of stuff until I got a job with decent training and prospects. In the meantime I was working at Sainsburys to keep the money coming in. Whatever you do DON'T just settle for a job in a shop. You can't go wrong with a trade if that's your kind of thing, I know a couple of plumbers and a couple of sparks and they earn more than alot of uni leavers ever will.

 

[Billy the Fish]

It's all about personal choice. Education isn't right for some people, I was in the same boat as you but managed to stick it out into the second year until they told me I hadn't done enough work and had no chance of passing anything.

I was quite particular about what sort of job I was after though, and it took me 9 months of applying for loads of stuff until I got a job with decent training and prospects. In the meantime I was working at Sainsburys to keep the money coming in. Whatever you do DON'T just settle for a job in a shop. You can't go wrong with a trade if that's your kind of thing, I know a couple of plumbers and a couple of sparks and they earn more than alot of uni leavers ever will.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

A mate of mine who dropped out of Uni has gone on to be senior IT manager at a local business, while with my degree im roughing it in the trenches between support and administration. he has a slightly different attitude to getting work done to me, ie he sees stuff through and stays late, goes abroad, i go home at shortly after 5.

point is, how far you get is down to your attitude to work. i loved uni and college, but got a grant and wouldnt bother with it now. having said that, not getting A levels might be a very big mistake and close doors.

My first boss said to me "you can have a list of qualifications as long as your arm, but if you can't do the job then you're no good to me". I started work at 16 without going to 6th form but, as above, I got stuck into work, got a reputation for hard work, reliability and delivery of work and picked up a few quick promotions. I've been in management positions since my twenties and am now a senior manager. Some places still insist that you should be degree educated but I maintain that you don't have to go through the full university education as professional qualifications and experience are just as valuable.

 

[El Presidente]

A Job, anyday. A Job will allow you to buy/do things, from your HARD earned cash, Education wont. The one thing I hate about Brighton, to many f***ing students. Espically down Churchill Square.

It will however give you skills that can be used in a career, such as spelling and grammar.

Without such skills you won't even get as far as an interview for many a decent job, so bear that in mind. This is because your qualifications (or lack of them) are a prerequisite to getting your foot in the door, especially for larger organisations.

Even with a degree, it is hard work, not the letters after your name that will bring recognition and success. One of my former students failed her exams three times, but she kept on grafting and finally achieved her qualifications. I have written references for her ever since, and followed her career with interest. She sold out from the company she was working for a few months ago, and pocketed £6million in the process. She was not the brightest, but always worked harder than anyone else.

That is not the same as saying you cannot succeed without going to college, but statistically your chances are far more remote if you lack qualifications.