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‘Young people aren’t given the career advice they need to make informed decisions about whether to take an academic or vocational study route.’ Photograph: Stockbroker/Alamy
‘Young people aren’t given the career advice they need to make informed decisions about whether to take an academic or vocational study route.’ Photograph: Stockbroker/Alamy

Why are Brits so obsessed with getting a university degree?

This article is more than 8 years old
​Ann Watson

With only 47% of graduates finding professional jobs six months after graduating, we are setting up too many young people for disappointment

Why are we Brits still obsessed with heading to university to get a degree and running up a small mortgage in the process?

We already have a vast reservoir of graduates that have obtained a first or 2.1 – yet the skills pipeline from education to industry is in danger of running dry.

A recent ONS report claims that nearly half of graduates have not found professional jobs six months after graduating. We are setting up too many of our young people for disappointment – and charging them the thick end of £50,000 for the privilege.

The lifting of the university cap has had the effect of ensuring thousands more school leavers are likely to be swept up in the crush – and delivered down a no through road.

When emerging economies like India and China are churning out millions of graduates every year, you may ask why we would want to row back on our own expansion of higher education.

At a time when government is beginning to shout about the benefits of apprenticeships and other vocational pathways, this policy approach of lifting the cap on student numbers could prove to be a retrograde step.

Higher education has consistently been sold as the be-all and end-all, with the result that apprenticeships and other vocational options are perceived as second-rate. Coupled with poor careers advice within schools – the education secretary herself has said she sees no reason to doubt Ofsted’s findings that 80% of advice is below par – we are preventing far too many of our young people considering other, non-university pathways to further learning and to fulfilling careers.

Statistics show that only 10% of educators in further education know enough about apprenticeships to promote them with their learners and only 9% of parents feel an apprenticeship is the most suitable option for their child.

We must change this mindset fast if the government is to achieve their 3 million apprenticeship target during this parliament.

The real tragedy is that when young people are given fuller information about their options – those for whom university might not be the right choice – they are more likely than not to choose something that’s a better fit.

In the recent Industry Apprenticeship Council annual survey, 89% of respondents reported that friends had either started apprenticeships or wished they’d taken them, while 74% said that having started their apprenticeships, their friends and family thought more highly of the system.

However, I know from talking to captains of industry that when it comes to training the engineers of the future, apprenticeships are more often than not viewed as a surer way to get in young members of staff who are keen to learn and develop. Engineering apprentices have a mean retention rate of 74% and a number of top engineering firms’ boards are studded with high-flyers who started out as apprentices.

How do we change perceptions?

There are several ways we can help change perceptions among young people, parents and educators around apprenticeships.

Better careers advice

The government’s new Careers and Enterprise Company must ensure that every school fulfils its legal requirement to provide genuinely impartial and independent careers advice to all young people, with vocational routes given equal weighting to academic ones.

Improve links between institutions and industry

We need better links between educational institutions and employers to be forged, as too many teachers simply do not understand what modern industry looks like – our Stem Exchange has been set up to do exactly that, with hundreds of employers across the country offering development opportunities to further education practitioners. And we should ensure young people have the opportunity to experience what a job in industry is like through work experience placements and visits.

The Royal Academy of Engineering estimates that by 2020 we’ll need 800,000 new engineers. This target cannot be achieved through universities alone. Our employers really value apprenticeships and last year’s research from UK Commission for Employment and Skills identified that by the end of an apprentice’s third year they net a business between 150% and 300% return on investment.

There is a clear return for the apprentices too through the ability to earn and learn. Data from the gov.uk website speaks for itself and shows that average earnings of an advanced apprenticeship in engineering increased from £24,800 one year after study to £30,300 three years after study.

So if you have just opened that envelope – take a little time to discover all the options: take on 20 years of debt? Or earn and learn with a secure job waiting for you when you have completed your apprenticeship.

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