I went to university
There, I learned a number of useful and transferable skills like essay writing, research, working in small groups, contributing in seminars and participating in a variety of extra-curricular activities. The careers people told me these would be essential when seeking a job.

However, when I went into a recruitment agency after graduation and reeled off my 'skills' I was met with a hurricane of derisive laughter. I did not have any skills. No - the troglodyte who had done a BTEC in Lawnmowing had skills; the blank-faced slapper with a Certificate in Intermediate Typing had skills. Indeed, the midget covered entirely in hair and with a hump had skills because he could lick his own arse and therefore find work in a circus.

I, however, had a university degree and debts which I still possess 12 years later. I rest my case.
(frankspencer, Mon 22 Oct 2007, 16:23, 12 replies)

Tell me about it brother
I earn my cash using not one Uni skill.

I'm one of 4 graduates here.
( disasterprone "Pyjamas caused the Holocaust", Mon 22 Oct 2007, 16:29, closed)

Troglodyte
*Writes that one down*

Cheers!
( Axai is in Montréal, Canada O.o, Mon 22 Oct 2007, 16:29, closed)

University
Sadly, you have been conned: but not by the university: by the government. The HE sector is based on the claim that going to university is about obtaining skills in order to get a job. Education - which is an end in itself - has been written out of things in favour of skills. Indeed, education for its own sake is somewhat looked down on (I'm thinking of Charles Clarke here): people, it seems, ought to be useful drones, not curious or flourishing.

A properly funded education system would allow people to study a subject they find fascinating without having to worry about paying off debts. Training could come later.

Sorry to rant - but I hate to see the university system run down by a series of Gradgrindian governments that JUST DON'T GET IT.

I think I'll have a cup of tea now.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 22 Oct 2007, 16:33, closed)

so true...
I could have learnt more useful skills in prison...
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Mon 22 Oct 2007, 16:46, closed)

Prison Skills
I dread to think.
(LickOutTheJamsMotherfuckers!, Mon 22 Oct 2007, 17:54, closed)

balls
Thanks to the supremely feeble screen on my blackberry, I couldn't find the strength in my thumb to scroll through all the posts. I am forced into having a blackberry due to a lack of home pc and a total internet block at work. Bloody "secure government servers".
(Exiled Youth [witty comment], Mon 22 Oct 2007, 17:58, closed)

On the other hand...
if you don't have a diploma of any sort you're limited to what sorts of jobs you can get. My girlfriend hit a ceiling at work because of that when she was working for a utility company. And the person who got the job she was after? Her degree was in Home Economics- how best to cook and clean and sew and all that shite. An absolute bullshit degree, completely unrelated to the work, but it was enough to qualify her.

And even a person with an engineering degree doesn't have any guarantees of work. Trust me on this.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 22 Oct 2007, 22:18, closed)

Surely
Your mistake was not going to uni, it was going to a recruitment agency.
(Richwisheshewas1337, Tue 23 Oct 2007, 0:17, closed)

I DID learn more skills in prison..
than in junior college and university. Of course, I worked there. But, I still came out with more marketable skills in criminal justice when I quit the prison than the skills which came with my psychology degree. And, Ii got PAID while at the prison, whereas Ii am still paying for the stupid degree (and will be for the next 23 years from the looks of it)


wow...that was terrible grammar. i may need a nap.
( flirting with badgers What? It sounded good at the time., Tue 23 Oct 2007, 1:46, closed)

what Enzyme said
including: the govt is currently aiming to put 50% of the population through University. Because of this I have to teach a bunch of muppets who aren't capable of higher thought let alone higher education. I receieved an email from one final year dissertation student recently that simply said "i want you to giv me ur easiest project to do whatever is least hard". Also, the next nineteen year old to use the word "innit" gets punched. I hate my job.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Tue 23 Oct 2007, 14:46, closed)

Fortunately my family are too poor for me to have uni debt
I got it all paid for me. But I did my degree in Biochemistry and at the moment Im a clerical officer, which requires 3 GCSEs.

Part of me wishes Id never gone uni, I worked so hard with so much stress but did average. I should have just went straight into work after college (still glad I went to college- what a laugh!). Would have saved a bout of depression and a hell of a lot of stress!
(purplefairy, Tue 23 Oct 2007, 23:06, closed)

The University of Life
I'm one of those self-satisfied cunts who left school at 16, armed with a couple of O levels, but buckets of common sense and a burning desire to spit down on those who thought they were superior and that the world owed them a living simply because they had been to University.

Years later, I have a successful business, I'm fucking loaded, and I still see some of those not-so-superior scum trying to shake off their debts.
I also regularly get graduates reeling off their "qualifications" and expecting to be granted an executive sound engineer position, manning FOH mix at prestigious shows. Erm no, sorry old bean, I don't care what your papers say, especially if you can't spell or punctuate (I'll send your CV back with all the mistakes ringed in red biro, that's the kind of cunt I am). Now, get your gloves on and unload the truck. Oh, mine's white with no sugar. And I want chocolate hob-nobs, chop chop. That's the point they start to poo themselves. They never said it would be like this at Uni....
Welcome to the Real World.

However, I do feel for those of you that were conned by the Govt, as said above. You, and the rest of the country have been royally fucked over, the value of a degree has been degraded to such a point as to be arse-wipe. I even feel the odd twinge of sympathy for my schoolmates. (Actually, no I don't, fuck them!)

Erm, I still prefer my Doc and my Solicitor to have spent years with their heads in books though!

I also wish I could manufacture my own Meth/Crack/Acid etc, I'm sure there must be a Uni course that covers this in great depth.
(Rsoles, Wed 24 Oct 2007, 12:14, closed)