'Vocation, vocation, vocation'

The bright stars of glittery universities will soon be out of sight for those who are financially in the gutter. 

The recession has inadvertently underlined in thick, red marker pen some of the mistakes within our education system. Now that the United Kingdom has been in the red for six consecutive terms, new questions must be brought to the table: are we returning to the elitist chapter of our academic history (albeit with an American business model), or can we turn a new leaf altogether?

Tony Blair’s New Labour mantra in 1996, “Education, education, education”, has correlated with the 21st century’s most notable increases in tuition costs: annual fees were introduced, doubled, and will soon top the £5-7,500 benchmark. There are two engines at work in ‘University factories’, and their cogs can sometimes be out of sync, which causes friction. Directors are in charge of ‘rust-prevention’ using liquid assets, while teaching staff check for quality control. So university bank accounts are happy to oblige Blair’s dream that half the population should 'buy' degrees, while lecturers  are bemoaning the levels of intellect as a result.

The turn of the decade has heralded ‘Change’ as its buzzword. World Skills, directed in London by Chris Humphreys, is humming the same innovative tune as it prepares for a panoply of skills across all sectors – including IT and hairdressing – to be represented in its 2011 fair. According to Mr Humphreys, the UK's leading expert on employment, unemployment and skills:

We put far too much emphasis on academic skills…every young person in the UK deserves the chance to smile at their own success, and our system doesn’t give them that.

Humphreys wants to give young entrepreneurs an opportunity to beam the shining torch of success that is potentially ablaze in all the hearts of Britain’s youth:

Because to be honest with you, we will get the change if the young people do first. Everyone else will follow because their power and their voice, their decision-making, actually will make the difference.

For cynics, this convention could be the UK’s way of showcasing itself as the second biggest 'change-monger' on the globe…after America. But pushing vocational education seems a reasonably pragmatic modification to strive for, especially if it took place alongside a well-implemented return to apprenticeships (not everyone can be an entrepreneur). Within university degrees, subjects could also be divided along ‘vocational’ (Business studies) and academic distinctions (Philosophy and English) and priced accordingly, rather than on the brand power of each institution.

‘Meritocracy’ is another concept very proudly appropriated as the foundation of all Western democratic societies. Our MPs enjoyed a free university education based on merit, since they enrolled at a time when the supply of courses on offer still outweighed demand. Now that education is such a valued commodity, seen as a means to an end, youngsters are willing to make sacrifices to one day ‘smile at their own success’. Worryingly, conservative policy seems to be hinting at the right course of action here: abolishing student fees and reducing the number of people who enter higher education. Of course the risk is hidden between the lines: ‘reducing the number’ would favour private school candidates over the 'bog standard' majority.

Meritocracy cannot realistically exist when bright children have to attend secondary schools that can't provide the learning environment required for success. You would need to have attended a school similar to the one featured in Kidulthood to understand how deep the intellectual vacuum in comprehensives can be, as hours of the curriculum are wasted (through necessity) on keeping the peace with A LOT of discipline. While we wait for a wider societal change to miraculously happen, why not let the poor bright children go to free grammar schools with an 11+ system? Why hold all children back in the name of equality, while those who have rich parents can get ahead?  The government wants to extend compulsory academic education until the age of 18 by 2013. This against a backdrop where bullying is out of control on the UK's playgrounds, and many pupils are simply not interested in traditional academic paths, which would at best take them to Southbank university if they were.

Class structures in the UK are set in stone, and the deeply ingrained delusion that degrees reinforce equal standards needs to be weeded out. The ‘G5’, or top five universities within the Russel group, are currently conversing in secret lobbies to pressure the abolition of the government’s capped fees. They claim to require more private funding to maintain their excellent teaching standards, which will render the gulf between elite and average universities even wider. Ivy envelops buildings with a protective layer so that redbrick universities don’t suffer any damage from bad weather; the reputations of Oxford and Cambridge are too big to fail in recessionary climates. The Imperial, LSE and UCL alumni flourish with roots that are built to last: they are the envy of those with no ivy. Students graduating from old polytechnics are being run into the mud, since the rest of society tarnishes the yellow-bricked walls of their institutions with contempt.

The financial crisis has given more transparency to people's understanding of the world: it is now clear that societal structures are built of air, founded on speculation, and sustained with empty promises. Universities, which are run like businesses, market slogans to promise futures that they cannot deliver. If respected universities impose astronomical fees as done in the USA, then those lower down the league tables will do the same to make their courses appear as desirable. Should these institutions not focus on teaching apprenticeships instead? The only skill that they rub off onto their 'customers' seems to be that of ‘selling oneself’: aggrandising one's achievements by turning one's curriculum vitae into embellishments of little veritas.

Young people need to be told a few truths, and given realistic goals instead of being promised glamorous careers in 'vague futures' that blot out the realistic ones available now - before the years of debts are accumulated. The screen of smoke and mirrors surrounding further education is ultimately counter-productive for the economy, since no one seems to know which skills to hone into for the benefit of society at large. Top unis should stay selective in their intellectual criteria for admittance, but not close their doors to candidates from lower socio-economic backgrounds: a fact concomitant with US-style fee impositions. State schools will require change from the bottom up if every pupil is to have an equal chance of access and consequent success in life. Pupils need to know that 'The University of Life' (developing skills outside of traditional academia) can make for a better and far cheaper CV to land them a job.

Video of the London World Skills convention to take place in 2011:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgJoccFiqKE

TWO FRUSTRATED GIRLS IN LONDON

Should you further your education? These girls have degrees, experience, and a can-do attitude. Yet the 'real world' seems to hold mixed views over their academic achievements.

Redundancies keep mounting as unemployment escalates to heights of 7.9% in the UK. The recession may have reached its peek, but companies traditionally still shed workers after they have returned to growth. Sectors most affected have been business, finance, and construction: mostly male-lead industries. As a result, many women have become the sole breadwinners in their households (whether willingly or not, they have always been a favourite for short-term, part-time contracts). The two girls I spoke to represented yet another group: young people. For them it was hard to even get their foot in the door.

There are now 946,000 young people out of work in the UK, and their prospects do not look promising. With the budget deficit going through the roof, a pension crisis looming ahead, and an extra £40 billion of taxpayers’ money going to RBS and Lloyds this November, a whole generation will have to foot the bill for decades to come. Yet at the moment, one in five graduates cannot even find work: the first rung on the employment ladder is slippery, since companies are stepping up the competition in every recruitment round.

Charlotte Edwins* just completed her MA in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London. (Having obtained a 1st in her BA.) She is looking for work to fund her future studies, with her CV boasting extensive experience in finance, retail, as a student ambassador, and even in the police force. She told me about how the recession has tripped her up: 

It was my impression that you did a degree to get up on the career ladder. Unfortunately I have done four years and two qualifications but I am having to start at the very bottom.

Charlotte is understandably frustrated: she has applied to at least 15 jobs since September, been contacted for only one interview, and the job that was earmarked for an internal candidate!

Young people have always been among the most vulnerable groups in times of economic hardship. Their lack of training, skills and references make them less attractive to prospective employers, especially when waves of more experienced workers are flooding the reserve labour pool. Charlotte’s future plans hardly seem surprising therefore: she now wants to stay in education for good, and become an English lecturer. Statistics indicate that BAs are no longer a passport into well-paid employment, even outside the realm of academic careers. Among those who graduated in 2005 with postgraduate qualifications, 85% had been in graduate level jobs since leaving university compared with 56% of those with just a bachelor’s degree.

Unpicking which sectors will value further education can be a thorny business however. Post-grad student Victoria Chan* graduated from Oxford University with a 2:2 in Engineering, then went on to Imperial to do an MA in Engineering in Medicine, before completing a PhD in Biomechanics/Bioengineering. When she started the PhD she expected to be head-hunted for a job. She explains what actually happened:

A lot of the time, PhDs are competing with fresh grads for places and companies do not consider the PhD to be an advantage. In fact I was told outright by Deloitte that they would hire someone with a 2.1 over me, regardless of the institution that I went to or the 2 further degrees that I held. I was gutted!

She had been looking for work since October 2008, and was finally hired by Detica in September 2009.

The shortfall of entry-level jobs is making competition for vacancies more fierce, and young people increasingly frustrated with the arduous application process. On top of that, and as with most women in the labour market, Charlotte has found herself applying for jobs that offer little protection and no long-term prospects:

The applications are horrendously long and boring, about eight pages for a simple admin role. They take around one to two full days to finish. Employers expect ridiculous things, like extensive experience in administration (usually over five years), which immediately cuts out all graduates. They offer no benefits, no pensions. They want more and more for less money and on a short contract. The world of work is becoming more like a one-night stand and less like a marriage if you know what I mean!

Constant rejections from jobs and prolonged unemployment is likely to impact on morale. Afterall,  a GDP deficit in six consecutive terms might easily change the definition 'recession' into 'depression'. Research carried out at Bristol University on ‘The Wage Scar from Youth Unemployment’ revealed that youth unemployment increases a person’s chances of future unemployment up to 10 years later, and guarantees a ‘wage scar’ of between 10%-15% by age 42. It would seem that the best predictor of an individual's future risk of unemployment is their past history of unemployment.

Charlotte reflected on the psychological impacts of this worrying trend:

I had a mini break-down, which basically involves feelings of hopelessness and a general lack of self-worth. The only thing that stopped me from leaving the country was seeing a lecturer yesterday about doing a PhD. It's embarrassing to go from heading towards a career path to doing nothing all day. I have a few friends on the dole but to be honest it's not something I can face doing right now. Going to a seedy office to sign a piece of paper and say I am completely unemployable for £50 a week is beyond my pride level.

Both Charlotte and Victoria now have debts of over £20,000 to pay back to student loans, overdraft facilities and other sources of funding. Their situations represent a discrepancy between what people are promised before they start their BAs, and what they are faced with after they graduate. Ultimately, these girls have benefited from their degrees in getting one step closer toward their final goals. But countless other graduates in the UK have found themselves in dead-end cul de sacs, with  crippling debts and no graduate-level salaries to steer themselves out with. It's inevitable that many regret having taken the path into university. The long-lasting consequences of a recession that has pushed so many into the margins should urge schools, sixth-form colleges and the media to engage in a more honest discourse with young people before they start, with regards to the value of a good institution and the weight that subjects can hold. Nobody told 'Generation Y' that the subjects they picked would pigeon-hole them so stringently when faced with the realities of an increasingly competitive labour market.

*names were changed as interviewees wished to remain anonymous

Why can't I find a f***ing job???

It has been a GRIM Summer for the class of 2009. If you're an unemployed graduate still looking for work, then you're probably worried about an even more hostile climate predicted for this winter; a season not traditionally associated with new beginnings. The forecast this month, featured in the Telegraph, the Mirror, the Independent, This is London and the Metro, could all be summed up in three very droning, very dismal, but also very English words: ‘Join The Queue’!

Official figures have revealed that the jobless rate among 16 to 24-year-olds has soared to almost 20%, with over 920,000 classed as unemployed, and the number surging towards the politically sensitive One Million mark.

Typically, as a British self-deprecating graduate, you’ll feel guilty for not having looked for a job (or an MA) during your hectic last year of study, when the more industrious squirrels were stashing away all their nuts. You might even be feeling left out in the cold, with nothing to hold onto but your (fast retracting) balls! But losing courage is an all too natural response when faced with the current economic climate and backlash of thousands of older, better-skilled and recently-fired workers to compete with for jobs:

Unemployment is at a 14-year high of 2.47 million after a 210,000 rise in the three months to July, official figures showed on 16th September 2009.

On top of that, as we all know, the class of 2008 are also out there hunting for jobs. Last year, as demonstrated by a leading independent market research company, High Fliers, www.highfliers.co.uk/download/GraduateMarket09.pdf, graduates expected an increase of 11.8% more vacancies, when these were in fact drastically cut to - 6.7%.

The Summer of 2008 hence marked the end of a four-year boom in graduate entry-level jobs. Thousands were unsuccessful in securing the kind of work they were promised when they began their degrees, as placements were scrapped left, right and centre. The double-edged sword goes deeper for the class of 2009 however, since they are the first to pay top-up fees. It would seem that university is increasingly becoming a mug’s game, except for the rare high-flyers ruthless enough to have gotten the few jobs in law, investment banking (though this sector has evidently seen the most severe entry-level cuts) or even at Aldi (a supermarket that pays the most competitive rate to graduates ⇒ 40K + a car!). Click here to see videos of their “crème de la crème” clones if you want to know whether you can cut their business mustard! http://www.graduates.aldirecruitment.co.uk/

For the rest of 16-24 year olds who do have a soul, the unemployment rate is rising at a record 19.7%.
This year, another 400, 000 students have come pouring out of their Bachelor’s degrees feeling even more Bewildered and Apathetic as the High Flyer reports at least another 17% more cuts by the UK’s leading graduate employers (consult page 8 of their pdf if you want to know what companies make up the Times top 100 graduate employers):

During the two recruitment rounds in 2008 and 2009, the UK’s leading employers have promoted over 40,000 graduate vacancies, of which almost 7,000 have been cut or left unfilled.

Apathy is hardly surprising at this stage therefore: it’s hard to stay optimistic when you are faced with one rejection after another, especially when one is applying to jobs that one frankly has no interest in whatsoever…

“- So what attracts you to head hunting?
“- Well, I suppose my interest was piqued again after seeing the film Apocalypto. That field filled with those heads on spikes was inspiring. It’s an angle of barbarity I’ve been fascinated with since I was eight years old.”

This is the type of answer you should avoid if you do get onto the next level: the interview. However, bewilderment - or feeling incapable of making heads or tales of what the hell it is you’re applying for - is just a sign of the times… jobs in this capitalist service-led country are ridiculous, let’s face it. Even those early-worm catchers you knew back at uni were facing the same infertile mud before the Summer began. Again, according to High Flyer’s research involving over 1,000 final year student job hunters from universities across the UK:

Half of finalists believe they’ll have to take any job that they’re offered, a fifth say they’ve been forced to apply to employers that they aren’t really interested in and many expect to begin work on a lower salary than they were hoping for.

Now what surprises me is why this Apathy does not more frequently turn into COLLECTIVE ANGER. In your job searching, you’ll no doubt have signed up with companies like “Milkround” to receive newsletters on graduate schemes. After a few unsuccessful applications, you'll be relieved to find your inbox free of this patronisingly Oedipal brand name. (The offers to come and drink from the corporate teet dry up eventually!) At this point you’ll no doubt start to look for a different cash cow, and lower your sights onto the less dazzling prospects of retail and catering jobs…but the application forms here are just as infuriating, since businesses are increasingly demanding.

Foyles bookstore for example now states their preference for “English literature graduates” as employees, who then have to prove themselves for 12 months before getting the grand salary of 15K as a ‘senior bookseller’. This farce becomes less amusing when one considers that your average student will owe 25K in debt, which according to various online student debt calculators have to be repaid at a rate of £7.50 a month when earning only £15K. Which means £90/year and 277 years on this planet to pay it all back! The government would scrap it by the age of 65 or in 25 years’ time if you are a top-up fee student, of course, but the point is: why can't a 16 year old fresh out of school get that job and learn about books in the meantime by reading them? Why encourage and demand of young people that they go through university first?

I am not saying my mathematics are infallible...If I was good at maths I would be one of the only students with a job right now (accountancy has been the biggest provider of jobs for graduates in 2009, with 20.9% of total graduate jobs!). But there is a clear equation, obvious to everyone, in the way things are turning out for those not part of the elite: increased competition + indebted youth + marketing the 'brand value' = cheap, grateful and motivated labour pool. Again, exploitation is a rather perverse state of affairs. But sometimes you have to laugh. I mean who is going to gobble up the make-belief status that Subway are trying to package for their new recruits... “sandwich artists”!!! In all seriousness!!


We need some more cynical clerks out there. (Watch CLERKS for free online here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzFiYwwuU5w)


Type of Graduate Vacancies at leading UK Employers in 2009
Finance 62%
IT 61%
Human resources 41%
Engineering 37%
Marketing 33%
General management 31%
Sales 26%
Purchasing 25%
Accountancy 24%
Law 24%
Research & development 23%
Logistics 20%
Retailing 18%
Investment banking 18%
Consulting 17%
Media 13%
 
If you want to feel some ACTION and get together with fellow students, then keep the 28th of November free, for a MASS DEMONSTRATION in London.
http://www.youthfightforjobs.com/

Don't take yourself so seriously!! Love is but a train journey...

(This is contemporary French poetry, which I translated. I stayed as faithful as possible to the poem, but with some creative license of my own in order to keep a rhyming scheme going!)
ENJOY!

Les Voyages en train by Grand Corps Malade

Love stories remind me of train journeys.
When I see people traveling, I sometimes wish I could join in.
They stand on platforms and wait,
They panic about arriving late.

Trains often start moving when you least expect it,
As a romance can whisk you away, leaving witnesses astounded.

The witnesses are your friends left behind on the platform,
Who watch as your train leaves with a worried smile, somewhat forlorn.

You signal to say ‘see you later’ with your hand…
Some think you’re confused about your feet, the ground, and where the hell it is you stand.

Some think your head is in the clouds and you’re making a mistake,
While each gives an estimate of how long your journey will take.

Most think the train will veer off track after the first argument,
Since love stories can uproot a part of you from better judgement.

From the first day you have to choose your carriage with care,
Picking between corridor and window, the right place so your courage won’t flare.

For the first few miles, all you care about are her beautiful eyes,
You don’t think about the speed at which the scenery flies by behind the glass.
After all what is it you’re choosing, a love story of first or second class?

You feel alive, you’re feeling light, life is bliss…
so sweet you almost want to give the ticket inspector a kiss.

But the magic doesn’t last forever, and your story starts to flutter.
You tell yourself that it’s not you but her throwing it down the gutter.

The train’s incessant wailing gets on your nerves while each turning makes you sick,
You have to get up and walk, stretch your legs, get on with it.

Now the train is slowing down – it’s already the end of Cupid’s mission,
On top of that, you’re like a moron as your friends stayed at the other station.

Now you’re saying goodbye to the one you’ll be calling your ex.
In her diary, she’ll trace a white line across your name with typex.

But love stories still remind me of train journeys.
When I see people travelling, I sometimes wish I could join in.
They stand on platforms and wait,
They panic about arriving late.

For many, life consists in attempting to catch the train,
To discover what love is because solitude is a pain.

It’s important to get there at the right hour,
On time for this potential journey to euphoria.

Because it is easy to get on the train, but not to sit on the right carriage,
I have gotten on a couple that were filled with too much baggage.

Trains can be variable, some also unreliable,
For example Thameslink is not always possible.

For some, trains are often on strike or outside their transport means,
For them, a love story only takes place in daydreams.

There are also those who rush into the first train without paying any attention,
And of course they get off, disappointed, at the next station.

There are girls who get scared of getting attached because they’re too sensitive,
For them it’s too risky to hold on to the locomotive.

There are explorers who take one train after another,
As soon as one story is over, they’ll attack the next chapter.

My only real journey left me suffering for months, it was a chore.
We both agreed to break up, but she agreed more.

Now I hang about on platforms looking at trains as they leave,
Some doors open, but in a station I feel alone.

Apparently train journeys generally end badly,
If you feel that way just hold on, focus on the scenery.

The train will always have to stop, there will be a terminus.
But now you have been warned: next time, get the bus!