This year’s graduating class from universities all over the UK will find it more difficult than any graduating class for a generation to find employment. The blue-chip recruiters have reined in their recruitment plans for the second year running. Graduates are likely to be increasingly hard pressed to find employment that will enable them to pay off their student loans.
Not only will they be competing with each other, they will be competing with last year’s graduates, next year’s graduates and graduates of the year after when they leave university.
This means it is likely to be very difficult for students to get an average or above average job with a suitable employer at any point in the next four years.
Given their employment track record at this time, many graduates will never fulfil their employment potential because the labour market will be swamped by the time the economy recovers.
Under this scenario, isn’t it possible that the cost of a degree and the accompanying debt burden is a crazy idea for anyone thinking of going to university?
After all, the students who have good A-level results could simply skip university and go straight into employment. This would give them a three year head start on their peers while at the same time, they would be able to do on-the-job training and get a feel for the corporate atmosphere before the competition comes from universities.
The debt, the ability to earn an income, the ability to get on-the-job training, the lack of jobs, the hugely increased competition once they do enter the job market, the devaluation of degrees and the ability to jump the queue on their peers after A-levels is looking like a more and more appealing choice to many would-be students.
In addition, students who take the route of skipping universally altogether will be able to accumulate capital much faster, buy a house faster, and will even be able to get a pay as you go degree through organisations like the Open University in four or five years.
This means that, unlike students who go to university, they will have five years of work experience and a degree by the time they are 23 or 24. Most ordinary students will have a year out, a four-year degree, no work experience and a huge amount of debt by the time they are 24. As an employer, I know which candidate would look smarter to me during the application process.
