Teachers were pushing university... but I got a Me to go to better offer
Record youth unemployment coupled with the trebling of university fees to £9,000 a year from this September are forcing more school leavers to question the value of higher education. Is it worth leaving university saddled with debt to compete in a shrinking jobs market with no vocational skills to offer?
Applications for university courses for September are down almost ten per cent compared with this time last year. More young people are now looking for an alternative, such as vocational training, apprenticeships or even setting up on their own.
Labour leader Ed Miliband last week called on society to reject the ‘snobbery’ that assumed the only route to social mobility was via a degree. Simon Dolan, a multimillionaire and author of How To Make Millions Without A Degree, believes successive Governments have placed too much emphasis on university as the best way into work.
Dolan owns 17 companies, including an accountancy firm, private airline and motor racing team. He left school at 16 with minimal qualifications.
‘There are plenty of ways to get where you want to be in life,’ he says. ‘Academic study is not for everyone.
‘It’s good that we are seeing a return to more old-fashioned routes into the workplace such as traineeships and apprenticeships. There should be no stigma in starting at the bottom and working your way up.’
Financial Mail studies the options.
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sities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) points. She beat 20 other candidates in the process and is now paid £18,000 a year as a full-time member of staff. For more details of the Ucas points system, go to ucas.com.
Sophie was the first to embark on Allianz’s scheme, which was launched last year. This year the company has expanded it and will take on three in September. She says: ‘I’m not sure where I’ll be in five years, but I’m learning a lot and I can see myself staying in financial services. I’m already gaining lots of experience and I won’t be saddled with tens of thousands of pounds of debt this way.’
Apprenticeship programmes grew by a third last year. Many other firms run their own schemes for school leavers, including banks such as HSBC and Co-operative Bank, insurer Aviva, and accountancy groups KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Starting annual salaries for apprenticeships on these schemes range from about £14,000 to £18,000 and apprentices can expect to be earning the same as graduate recruits within three to four years.
The school-leaver programme run by KPMG started last September and took on 90 students. Applicants need ABB at A-level or equivalent to start the six-year programme.
Entrants study while working and after six years they should have a university degree and a professional accountancy qualification. The starting salary is £21,500 in London. Outside London the starting salary is £14,500. KPMG has 22 regional offices, including Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh. All tuition and study fees are paid, so students end up with a degree, a qualification, a job – and, hopefully, no debt.
The Government wants to create 75,000 apprenticeship places over the next three years by giving incentives to small businesses. About 20,000 are expected to be professionally based apprenticeships in industries such as banking, insurance, technology, consultancy, IT and fashion.
The National Apprenticeship Service has more information and advice at apprenticeships.org.uk.
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