If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Youth unemployment is a dire experience - bringing nothing but acreage of misery, despair and tedium. However it's altogether worse when all of the misery is preventable. Educators in Great Britain are firstly failing to provide young people with the correct career information and then secondly failing to equip them with the necessary skills to actually do the job.
In my first year, I was informed by a tutor that students who had attended independent schools were more likely to be 'confident' and 'well-prepared' than those who had received a state education, and that this would help propel them through their degrees.
The fact is that as a graduate, you realise that on leaving university you are confronted with a ladder infinitely longer, more complex and scarier than the one you had to climb in education. This means that even more optimism and drive is required to tackle it.
when it comes to adult learners making their aspirations a reality, there is a problem. People just don't realise how qualified they already are. A key factor that holds many potential adult learners back when considering pursuing a new qualification is that they don't appreciate that there is value in experience.
Exciting opportunities for young people are thin on the ground, and when we get to a stage when young people are expected to pay for unpaid internships, we truly have witnessed the death of social mobility.
The statistic seems to have gone unnoticed. Is it that universities and colleges are not concerned about catering to the needs of those wanting to study part-time who are mainly adult learners? Or is it that the hike in tuition fees means that for many adult learners education is simply out of reach?
I have to confess that I haven't completely mastered the art of hiding my Attention Deficit as I constantly fidget and am disruptive during long lectures but I do know how I cope with getting my work done to a similar standard as my classmates.
What this proposal really shows is that the matter of achievement is associated only with the acquirement of the higher grades and not when a student is awarded with a grade that corresponds with their potential and effort.
A revolution has happened and over the last decade increasingly many undergraduates want something different. We want to start our own businesses - inevitably small at first, but hopefully large one day.
Open Letter: Why Sir David Bell is Wrong to Smack Down Employability Concerns of University Students
Sir David Bell, vice-chancellor of the University of Reading, recently smacked down the employability demands. In a riposte he said that it was vital that academics resisted such pressure in order to protect traditional courses; adding that the demands risk undermining the intellectual integrity of degrees.
Youth unemployment is a tragic reality whatever the circumstance, but there is something especially unsavoury about young people who have been sold on the graduate life ideal, only to end up without a job and in debt. The mismarketing of higher education is one of the least commented-upon scandals of our time.
Nothing can be more dangerous to an already anxious generation than to sink into a hole of depression. I am tired of reading disheartening articles about how younger generations are already failed and without a future. How we are doomed to despair, how older generations have given up on us as a hopeless case. All this negativity, it's no wonder we are starting to believe it.
The excitement starts when applying to university, choosing a course and actually thinking about what you want to do. It is a life changing experience that will shape your future. Being accepted and receiving offers at your chosen university is one of the greatest feelings you can have.
This isn't simply about the 235 Sussex staff losing their jobs, but the insidious, unaccountable nature of political decision making about universities. Pause to think for a moment how the flagship Tory mantra "There Is No Alternative" specifically discourages debate about the absent merits of their radical restructuring programme.
The flip-flop, the backtrack, the reversal, the U-turn; all terms that have entered public discourse to describe an intriguing catch-22: Reneging on policy commitments too often is seen as a surefire sign of a weak political will, yet slavery to principle whatever the weather is the defining characteristic of a political bigot in the eyes of the electorate.
If I'm honest, I'm really pleased I have so much practical stuff to do for my degree. It makes me feel as though I'm actually working towards something real rather than sitting in my bedroom staring blankly at a text-book. This attitude can't be said of everyone at university.
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