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Originally Posted by dogsbody70
I find your thoughts fascinating Robin. Is it truly so difficult to obtain work in the UK with your degree?
I do wonder if it is the subject that they choose to study that may not be a great deal of use in the outside world-- with all the competition out there.
Many seem to study Media studies, IT, etc whereas possibly there is need for physicists, scientists, engineers etc.
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With my degree I'm stuck with two choices: publishing and teaching. To be a teacher I'd need to get a teaching certificate, that would take an extra year and cost quite a fair bit of money, and if I was to teach English as a foriegn language
within the UK I'd again need to go into a fair ammount of debt to spend a year upping my certificate to that of a diploma. Publishing isn't really an option for me, I have no interest in that field, which seems far too competitive and with far too much pressure. In countries like Japan my degree and TEFL certificate, with some experience in teaching, are enough to find a job . . . in England I'd pretty much be laughed at and told to go get
more.
The area of study is hugely important. There's some areas, such as a while ago physiotherapy and speech therapy, that you could simply not find any work in whatsoever as there were no jobs going in those areas. Nursing and Psychology are highly competitive, which means getting jobs in those areas is a nightmare. Business Studies, I've been told by businessmen, is a complete waste of time - along with Philosophy - because it means nothing in the business world. At the
moment IT is - as you say - perhaps one of the best to go into, it opens a hell of a lot of doors for the graduate.
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I believe one has to read the newspapers that advertise jobs to try to fathom what would be a good subject to study in order to obtain well paid work after Graduation.
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True, but I would rather work at a subject I love and passionately adore, finding work difficult afterwards, than to slave away in a subject I detest merely to make finding work easier. The retirement age in the UK is forever going up and up . . . does someone really want to spend 60 years in a job they hate, simply because it's easier to do so? I've a few friends who've made that mistake, and by God they regret it . . .
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I admire you for studying at home, but it must have been very difficult and lonely for you.
Would that be Open University? I imagine there is so much more to be gained from being in a University where there are hundreds of other students, possibly many from abroad-- so expanding ones experience, living among them all and learning a great deal at the same time.
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Yes, it was the Open University. Actually I adored it, the courses were the same as what I would be studying at a brick-and-mortar university, the only difference is where my friends had forty or so modules to choose from I had around ten, lol. I adored the courses though, found them highly educational and interesting, and I enjoyed studying on my own. I work at an insanely fast pace and prefer working ahead, so I didn't have all the 'sitting around bored waiting for the next piece of work to appear' that I suffered with in college. The tutor support was amazing, too. The only thing I did hate was the exam stress, but I would get that in regular university, too, lol.
To be honest I didn't miss out too much on socialising and interaction. My friends are all rather diverse in terms of gender, religions, races and so forth, and my hometown is rather multi-cultural, too. The whole partying hard and binge-drinking aspect of uni never appealed to me anyway, I have to roll my eyes when my friends discuss their recent hangovers. So I don't feel I lost out. My priority was always the degree itself and the education, which is what I got. Just waiting for my results now
