Do you need a degree to succeed in life?

MY BLOOD boiled when the PM made a plea for young people to be given the opportunity to consider whether they could do an apprenticeship rather than go to university. I was a fully qualified careers adviser helping them to do precisely this until the service was made defunct.

ELAINE BUSS, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

IF YOU don’t go to university, it doesn’t mean you are stupid. Far better to have hands-on experience with an apprenticeship than pay for studies and no life experience. M. PENDLEBURY, Derby. IT SADDENS me to see young people with stars in their eyes accepting their degrees only to find they are worthless. Such wasted years when their talents could have been used elsewhere. Mrs JOSEPHINE JUDEN,

Bournemouth, Dorset.

FURTHER education colleges are the Cinderella of the educational sector. Governments have tinkered with vocational courses and allowed qualifications to be watered down to cynically maximise success rates. All have failed to appreciate that skills are the backbone of a strong economy. Further education colleges need the chance to take control of their own destiny and shape this nation’s economic future.

S. BUTLER, Rustington, W. Sussex.

THE 50 per cent target of people going to university has led to problems, not least student debt. Those leaving with a degree find they can’t get a graduate status job. Many employers now require a degree for jobs that used to suit school leavers. This discriminates against those for whom university is not an affordable option. The Government should focus on getting more students into vocational training.

S. EDWARDS, Bishop’s Stortford, Herts.