^ i have to confess, and i almost hate myself for it, especially because this post is going to make me sound like a dyed in the wool tory, this is one plan i agree with, in theory at least. i've often said that if i were pm (ha!) i'd reinstitute national service - not so much in the armed forces (although if that was what someone wanted to do it could be an option), but with other things. although my idea would have less emphasis on community care work (which i'm not really sure most 16 year olds are actually equipped for!) but in trade learning. kind of like apprenticeships.
britain is severely lacking in capable manual-but-skilled labourers, we have a huge shortage of builders, plumbers, electricians and so forth - hence there being so many poles doing those jobs for us (which is fine, i have no issue with immigrant workers whatsoever, but it would be nice to have a good system whereby british kids could benefit from the high demand for these trades). one area in which the new lab government went massively wrong was in its drive towards universal university education. i'm all for education, but not everyone is cut out for academic learning and the fallout is really bad - young people are under even more academic pressure, schools become driven by targets (which makes for a shoddy education at best) and exam results, including degrees, get devalued if the "market" is saturated with them (as an example just look at the way every year when teens do better in their gcses/a levels, the whole country goes "oh but they're too easy now!" - it must be massively deflating for a teen that's done well to hear that and it means whole generations are getting essentially devalued).
in the days of apprenticeships, those who either couldn't get to uni or didn't want to go (and there should be no shame whatsoever in that, some people take to academic study, others don't, it's just the way it is) could take on manual apprenticeships that let them learn a trade that was useful to them because it gave them income and motivation, and useful to everyone else because they could get their pipes fixed on time. scrapping that idea was a really big mistake.
if it were up to me (which it isn't, and that's probably a blessing!) i think i'd make it compulsory, either after gcses or after a levels, for all teens to undertake a year of some kind of vocational training, be it manual labour, care work, army, secretarial, whatever, maybe with some kind of option system where they could do a mixture of things for the first 3-6 months and then specialise.
when i was 25 i went to a different uni than the one i'm at now. the one i'm at now is almost exclusively for mature students and it's brilliant, but the other one was a standard one. at the standard one i lost count of the number of people who told me they were there just because their parents/school wanted them to be, and also that they were doing their chosen degree subject just because it was the only subject at school they were good enough at doing - a lot of them said "well i like the subject but i don't love it and i don't know if i want to do it forever". quite a few had chosen their subject because their parents thought it would lead to a decent job (that was mainly things like accountancy, law, medicine) - with no regard whatsoever for whether the student was actually interested in it enough to dedicate many years to it. very very few of them had chosen a subject knowing that that was what they wanted to do and that uni was where they wanted to be. the drop out rate was huge, and most of the ones that dropped out were the ones that were just there because they didn't have much choice in it.
as far as i can tell, 18 year olds, generally have no idea what they want to do for the rest of their lives, some do but they're by far the minority. having a massive drive to get everyone to university, while it seems noble, is just putting more pressure on teenagers to pick something because it's expected of them to do that. it doesn't allow any room for them to grow and make up their own mind.
having been at a mature students uni for 7 years (!!!) i know that every single person at my uni has picked their course of study after a lot of careful consideration, most people there have full time jobs and/or kids as well, and they are doing this because it's what they want, they are utterly dedicated to it. the drop out rate is much, much smaller, people actually give a crap (at the standard uni classes would be almost empty because of hangovers/teenaged laziness etc - the social aspect of uni was seen by most as far more important (and i think it is important but not at the expense of learning what you've paid to learn!), at my current one classes have a constant 85-90% attendance) and it's a much better way to learn, surrounded by people who are as motivated as you.
i did a secretarial course after school, i absolutely didn't want to go to uni (i was very ill with bipolar at the time and parental/school pressure really didn't help, so i dropped out of the uni entrance scheme and went for secretarial instead) - i ended up learning many skills that got me excellent jobs, enough money to live by myself in london, to eat, to go out, to pay rent etc. sure secretarial work isn't the most exciting but it is a very very useful set of skills, in just about any kind of profession. when i did finally go to uni (2nd try!) it was because i really wanted to, there was no outside pressure on what course to choose (in school, they wanted me to do forensics! i would've been hopeless - i much prefer the bookish subjects i've been doing, although y'know, i wouldn't mind working for mac
) and, possibly most importantly, i actually enjoy it which means i try to do well.
i think people, after school, should have a little break from book-learning education, should go out and learn something useful, find their way in the real world a little by using those skills to work, and then go to uni *if* and when they want to, making their own decisions about what to study and where, and why. and if that benefits society on a wider scale by providing more skilled labourers, or more careworkers, or young adults who are more aware of their place in society and how they can interact with it, so much the better.
saddling someone with a student debt that these days is more like a mortgage just so they can do a course the majority of them aren't inspired by, haven't really chosen for themselves, and which they're not even sure is what they want for the rest of their lives, just seems a bit ridiculous to me.
oh dear, went off on one there....
:lol:
