What you know matters so much more than what type of degree you hold

Sir, – The focus of discussions of this year’s school exams has been on ensuring that pupils can leave with the qualifications they need for university.

But I ask whether this obsession with academic as opposed to practical routes to success in life makes sense?

My mother never went to university but was fluent in five languages when The Courier employed her as their librarian during the First World War.

It is what you know, not what degree you hold that matters.

Her father, a Dundonian, was a flax merchant in Riga, buying, packing and sending flax on ships that docked in Dundee, to meet the needs of the linen factories.

His oft-repeated mantra was that the only valuable thing he could leave his children was education.

He sent my mother to the one school in Riga that taught in Russian, German and French.

They spoke English at home and, of course, she also picked up the local Latvian in the way kids do. Back home in Dundee her job was to scan foreign papers sent to The Courier for news that would interest Dundonians.

Once you leave school it is up to you how much more knowledge you need to achieve your ambitions, and your decision which learning process will allow you to do it best.

Many children are fed up with sitting in class being lectured to and do not have the self-discipline to search out for themselves in libraries and books the knowledge that will achieve a good degree. They want hands-on learning.

Apprenticeship for them is as good a way as any degree.

It is an all-consuming learning process that encourages inventive thought and the continuing self-education that enables an interesting working life. It is horses for courses and what suits you that matters. Elizabeth Buchan-hepburn. Simpson Loan, Edinburgh.