More than a third of students who start work when they finish their degree end up in non-graduate jobs, from stacking shelves to answering phones in call centres, according to figures obtained by the Guardian.Pete's Points
I wonder what the figures are in Australia?
The government has been suggesting for some time now that it is in the interest of both parents and their children to get as much education as possible. The government has also changed the rules and instead of a the free education that many people received some 30 - 40 years ago there are now high fees and hence high levels of indebtedness for students under the HECS scheme. (I think the latest figures I have heard is something like 9 BILLION in debt being carried by the Australian taxpayers)
If there are indeed a third of students in this country who are unable to find graduate employment in their field, then there is something wrong with the way in which education courses are being planned. There is also something drastically wrong with the way in which governments (or their advisors) have estimated the future growth in employment opportunities for which graduates are being prepared. Alternately the advice that students are being given about what opportunities will exist for them is obviously wrong in at least 33% of cases.
We have seen the massive changes in the education area that have taken us from a system that produced people who could read and write and do their sums to one in which we have to have support and remedial programs to make up for the failures of education at the lower levels. We have seen the destruction of the apprenticeship system only to face a massive shortfall in tradesmen and the reintroduction of apprenticeships again.
If we are also seeing graduates being unable to find work in their chosen fields this has a downward effect on marginalising people with a lesser level of education as they are pushed out of jobs that would have been available to them were it not for the graduates taking up the job opportunities.
At the other end of the spectrum we are seeing people with MBA s not being valued in this country and having to find employment elsewhere in the world.
So let's get serious, the research that is being undertaken in departments like DEWR to assess and to estimate what likely growth or decline in employment opportunities there will be over the next 10-20 years, need to be really well done. These results then need to be made available to education authorities especially counsellors (if they still exist in the system) so that students can take advice about what is likely to be available to them in the work place by the time that they end their education and wish to enter the work force.
I do not wish to enter the old debate about education versus training. All I have to say is that we need to provide people with the choice about whether they want to be well educated, but impoverished through their life or whether they want to be educated and in sound employment.
If the world is changing in the way in which people are predicting and individuals will in all likelihood have to change their jobs many times during their working lives then we owe it to the current and the next generation to get the information about what the job market will be like to them in time for them to undertake appropriate risk management and further professional development that will make them marketable in time to take advantage of the opportunities ahead.
The other side of this coin concerns those new graduates that are silly enough to believe that world owes them a living and that all they want is an easy job with high pay and quick promotion. It is my view that people have to earn high salaries by demonstrating competence, professionalism and by dint of hard work.
People who want to cruise through life need to be reminded of a saying by a former Prime Minister, "Life wasn't meant to be easy."
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