@@MrNPC physics at undergraduate level and materials science at postgraduate level.

​@@bodazephyr6629I have an MSc in chemistry. Left the profession after a few years due to the same reasons you outlined above. I've since retrained as a carpenter in the construction industry. I make more money than I did as a development chemist! It's crazy!

I actually know someone from uni who had a phd in physics from oxbridge (I always forget which one lol), and realized that research wasn't for them, so moved into environmental science years later. Honestly I respect your (and their) humility for willing to ignore the sunk cost fallacy and big-headedness that would stop most people from choosing what's really right for them

I live in Australia. I will earn more after completing my Master's in Radiography (with 8 hours overtime) than I did 10 years after I completed my PhD in Biochemistry...and without managing anyone or writing research grants...Within three years my radiography qualification will give me the same base salary...as my old chemistry job...but for 38 hours vs 48 hours as a scientist. With O/T close to 50% higher.

AI is coming for HGV drivers

Are you joking? We have socialist housing, unemployment, and healthcare systems. We're also one of the most regulated countries on Earth. We're not exactly a free market.

The Reagan-Thatcher model only works well for those who are already wealthy. Both the US and UK are long overdue for political reform.

Having one degree (undergrad) is no longer enough. You either have to go further and get a masters, phd, etc OR you need to have connections to land you a job that pays well.

At least in USA the salaries are a lot higher and income tax and vat is a lot lower so your at least rewarded

@@me0101001000 Well that's just a lie, everyone was doing poorly under Thatcher due to the recession. We had 25% inflation for Christ sake.

I mean yh, you think with all the grade inflation (which this video did not cover) that employers won't be forced into looking for new requirements which would make their admissions process more practical and viable. If a company only can offer 2 positions and then there are 8 out of 10 students which have firsts, then you can't expect a company to just filter students based just on their academic performance. Times have changed. That may have worked 20 years ago but certainly not now. You are competing with International students too where some of the brightest and most competent have knowledge of the industry far better than some native English students.

Great observation, so true

or go for a lower paying job to gain experience...

Yeah, right? 😂 I have bachelor’s degree in arts and sculpture but they ask for many years experience in working for art galleries. But how can I get experience if no one gives us an opportunity?

@@westay4924even the low paid job is asking for experience 😂

Finally someone asks the right question.

Which other nations? In Europe maybe Switzerland can compete

⁠@@mariog1051Switzerland has similar wages as the US ,so they have pretty high wages compared to the UK

Which nations are you referring to?

@@Fener242 Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Finland, Austria even France

You are right to an extent but the over 50s now outnumber the under 50s and it's only going to get worse as people have fewer children. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do living in a democracy, because the over 50s vote wins elections and niether party is prepared to stand up to them. Labour won't touch the triple lock pension for example.

That's what happens in societies with low birth rates as the elderly feel insecure about their remaining years so they suck up as much resources as they can and so will millenials do by 2050 and gen Z by 2065 As birth rates are declining and qualified migrants too we will see more of this phenomena

@@baha3alshamari152 No that's what happens when you have a generation that are bought up having everything handed to them and then refuse to return the favour when they get into power. Boomers were sucking up resources long before birth rates dropped. This same generation have the nerve to turn around and call everyone else selfish when, statistically, they have sucked more from both the generations before and after than any other generation in recorded history. Boomers monopolising positions in government and leadership roles is unprecedented. Even in the old days where a privileged few controlled everything, there still wasn't such a stark generational divide in wealth and power. Oldest millennials are now in their 40's, these aren't kids but adults often with families of their own and many are still stuck on the bottom rung and they still haven't taken over major positions of power because the Boomers have set the whole system up to prevent anyone but them getting hold of it before they die. Boomers still talk about Millennials as if they are teenagers, which shows just how detached they are. There isn't a single Millennial who is a teenager now. In fact the youngest Millennials will be 27.

"FrEnCh StInKy HaHa"

Absolute truth, I see this laziness everywhere around me, they try pay people the lowest amount possible and those people don’t have many skills or passion to do their job. So every business is failing today because the culture is go cheap and never improve.

As a ceo of a manufacturing company, we need engineers which we cannot recruit especially those who are based on manufacturing.

I mean everyone I know in my school (at least decent friends) want a job in STEM. I am pretty nerdy though so don’t take my words as facts.

absolutely

@@user-tt6il2up4o as someone else in manufacturing (although not CEO level) I can second this. We also cannot get new grads my role in particular recruits physics grads not only where these shortage anyway now so many WFH jobs available none of them want to come work in the office/factory can't blame them for that.

Even then it depends. Say for Biology etc wages are low, but non stem subjects like law, economics, and geography ( believe it or not) have high wage premiums.

Preach! 🙌

The issue is correct but the blame is incorrect. This lack of investment has existed since the 1900s. There is a book called The Audit of War which discusses the lag of UK productivity, and one factor always present was a lack of infrastructure investment

@@andrewzebic6201 I get your point, but will playfully add that, thanks to their ability to avoid an actual revolution, the same people in charge then are in charge now ^^

This is a great insight!

Counterpoint: HS2--the billion pound boondoggle to nowhere.

The problem with the UK just like Europe is that we are far less innovative and adaptable when it comes to technological adoption and creativity. For example, it is a dirty secret that our railway institutions are heavily overstaffed. My dad's friend works in the industry and let me tell you, the amount of people who doss around and just chit-chat with their mates while other people dig the ground and work on the tracks is shockingly too commonplace. There are new technologies out there such as driverless trains and newer technologies when it comes to railway works and ticketing but the unions have opposed any modernisation reforms that would bring the railways back to the 21st century. Even though these modernisations would require far less human resources to manage the improvement works on our railway networks, reducing labour costs and therefore reducing the cost of operating our railways. Another reason is that there is a severe over supply of humanities degrees that are award to student who don't even have a foundational grasp of maths/statistics or emerging technologies in the STEM field. Combine this fact that the UK is one of the few countries where students can quit learning maths just after they turn 16 and the bigger presence of automation due to rapid advances in AI (as labour costs are getting just way too expensive in Europe overall), it is no wonder that the UK and Europe are really starting to fall behind the USA in terms of wage growth and productivity.

Objectively false but ok

​@@inbb510yep

​@@inbb510You know alot of people are just not prone to STEM subjects. Their minds do not understand and function in a technical way. People who take creative degrees on average get less pay. But if the UK actually invested in more creative industries, there wouldn't be this problem of too many bio scientists or accountants.

@@Natta44 well there is going to be a point where Government will have to invest more into STEM subjects as manual labour is slowly becoming automated. Redundancies are just part and parcel of technological innovation. History shows that you can't stop innovation. Trying to fight technological advancement is a futile endeavour as eventually, a nation who does will lose out on economic growth and opportunities. With Generative AI starting to be commonplace since the beginning of this decade, it is now becoming possible to generate things like music or pictures without needing to hire a composer or a musician. You only have to look at advances in DALLE neural networks and advances in Unsupervised Machine Learning. Not saying that there won't be any more artists or musicians (digital pixel artists are now thriving as a future market) but it will be a more refined and concentrated group of people.

Self taught dev with 10 years in industry, agree with everything you have said.

99% of people cannot afford the idealism of studying for the sake of expanding knowledge. 99% of us live in the real world, with bills to pay, families to feed, etc. Only the wealthy or utterly naive study for idealistic reason - the realists study what will get them a good paying job to secure an actual future and avoid poverty. Right now, the "smart" people are learning trade skills, not going to university. There's no demand for software engineers. There is astronomical demand for electricians, carpenters, sheet metal workers, plumbers, mechanics etc.

Also a Comp sci grad! After almost 5+ years in the industry, I have never been asked about my degree in any interviews etc. Its all about what you can demonstrate you've before and how that relates to what they need from you in the role. The only real benefits I have been able to identify is the connections I made there. My group of course mates stayed in contact and frequently help each other with skill gaps and job referals. Besides from that, I could have easily achived the same result with a semi-decent portfolio of projects in a githiub repo....

CS/IT are the only field which you can enter on your own without a degree, core branches well you have to be in the top college for a secure future.

Depends on university really

Scotland is beating the UK in the proportion of apprenticeships in the workforce. Scotland 3,4% UK as a whole 2,8%

Still have apprenticeships where I work but they don't take on nearly enough and they pay and treat them so poorly most move on once they have qualifications and experience...

@@silentpro54this happened everywhere, machine shops are such a good example Traditionally you would take on apprentices and train them up, in return they would help you out for a cut of the pay The old guys last generation realised that they could make a lot more money and have a lot less competition if they just simply never took on apprentices and when they did treat them like shit and thought them nothing , they then realised they couldn’t do that for ever and tried but no one wanted to apprentice under them, and so they started to retire with one one to take over

" Fixing this could have been as simple as tax incentives to companies who hire and retain graduates" Jesus Christ, you're delusional. That's not simple at all. Make the incentive too low, and it won't have an effect. Make the incentive too high, and you decrease excessively tax receipts, or you would have to raise taxes in others areas.

All you have now is people with work experience going from one job to another endlessly, so employers aren't willing to train people in good jobs.

Man … you struggled with a stem degree?

I've had a very similar experience with a Mathematics BSc degree too :/

@@sdrawkcabUK Yes, unless you have connections and know people, its very hard to find a job. Its not what you know, its who you know.

Mate, with your degree. You are in the best place. Construction needs Design Engineers (could transfer your current degree) get some experience on the tools and do some on site Engineering and you'll be set for life

@@sdrawkcabUK Too be frank, I'm looking now on grad cracker now and there are 762 different graduate positions available with that degree. No experience required. OP might have had a different experience when they initially looked for a role, but there's still a massive demand for new Material Engineers. I suspect there were other reasons (location and the like) which might have played a hand there.

What special visa are you referring to

The difference between UK and US pay really is crazy. I''ve seen Americans get $100k+ for jobs Brits get paid £40k for

@@Makalon102 he's just talking about a normal work visa. if you can get a US company to hire you from the UK, they can sponsor a work visa for you and you get to live and work in the US. For most workers this is a very long and tedious process but a STEM worker with enough experience and a decent resume can do it pretty easily. For the average person both inside and outside of STEM fields, this is very difficult to do though. Competition is quite high.

The mismanagement of our technology sector over the last 15 years has been appalling.

@@Clone683 I would also add Canada into the mix. My sister is a Junior Pharmacist in Canada and she's on 6 figures already 2 years after graduation. Here in Britain her peers are barely scraping above £30k and Senior managers are on £50k which is still less than what she's on after you convert to CAD. I have realised in my working life that people in this country don't earn very much, which is maybe why we don't own anything. Most people are leveraged by debt.

Providing jobs in humanities subjects isn't an easy task

I also graduated this year with a degree in physics but had a very different experience. You should be getting snapped up super quickly. Have you been practising and passing all the preinterview stages?

If you're looking to get into software development you need to have a portfolio of projects that employers can see and interact with

@@Nightzo Not necessarily as a graduate

Same boat different degree, looking at Linkedin job listings and seeing a job posted 3 days ago havung 500 applicants is so demoralising

immigrate ASAP. This country is going downhill.

The pay is so bad, it's crazy how little we pay people who are doing genuinely challenging and highly skilled jobs. It's so distorted.

I would be very interested in reading that article if you shared it

I believe it. At least the housing quality in EE is often higher. Concrete buildings with insulation.

yeah masters and phds at more expensive more prestigious unis. also means their grades in school have to increase just to be accepted into those unis in the first place. we're grinding our smartest youth to a pulp.

I agree my bachelors was worthless but my Masters degree shot me to a much higher level

Same. My business degree has destroyed me. I was too young and ignorant back then. No one taught me about the labor market.

​@@Abdullah_the_Palestinian my masters degree in International business changed my life. Did you get enough adequate experience before and during your course?

@@tessy28 I worked for almost 2 years as an HR intern while doing university. It still amounted to nothing.

"I am a European citizen" No sense of community or respect to the country who gave you your education? This is exactly why we should take fewer foreign students, they are just looking to extract from the system.

That is shocking 😮

The UKs immigration system is expensive to both businesses and applicants. When they got rid of free movement they basically gave Europe the same issues non-EEA applicants had minus the European job market test that prevented direct hires (as in not grads from UK unis) from outside the EEA.

Did you this post on Reddit too

@@hotsaucebeliever good. We should double it, we still have plenty of applicants.

Further to this why do the tax payers fund education for jobs which does not exist or have no demand for them?

It's an issue with grad degrees as a whole not just "Micky mouse" ones. I have a STEM degree but to start you are on a 25k joke salary. People with skills and ambition just leave under these conditions affecting the wider economy and worsening the skills gap. Pushing everyone into STEM makes this problem worse not better

@@lilygaming_ Sure and thats my point, a STEM degree commonly includes a computer sciences degress for people who want to be a professional software developer. Really most of what you learn in a computer science degree is how a compliler works and how to create one. The problem is that there are about a dozen popular programming langauges and less than 100 since the 1970's so every computer science degree spends a lot of time on something lets say 10,000 people have worked on over 50 years. In short: even perceved valuble degrees spend a lot of time on useless content.

There isn’t though, you can use most degrees to get into “graduate level” jobs. Its wrong to state otherwise, most jobs I went for weren’t too asked about what exactly I studied at university…just that I went.

@@davidboat8467 yeah the secret is that you can apply for many of those jobs without a degree but a few years of experience instead and you'll earn as much and not have the debt to pay off. Obviously excluding some professions such as lawyers and doctors, but many things in STEM you can absolutely get into without a degree.

Wow being a Camera operator is so different to a role in Economics, I’m guessing TV/film is something you’re passionate about. Also if you ever want to go down the Econ field again, you could always do the civil service assistant economist scheme

ok

how did you make the switch from economics to tv?

Do you have a master's in economics? Usually, it's easier to get into economics with a postgrad they say. Although you will essentially be another robot until you get into the more senior roles. PhDs tend to be preferred. When expressing a professional opinion, you might be swayed by the politics though.

Amazing comment! I’m clearly biased as someone that went to uni at 19 (only to drop out) and again at 25. I’m only a few months from finishing my final year now (age 27) and I can safely say that the difference in my approach to university was due to what I learned in those years between 19 and 25; what I want, what I don’t want, how hard I’m willing to work, etc. Id recommend more teens to put it off for a few years and experience the job market. Then they will have a clear idea of what is available without a degree, and what a relevant degree can obtain.

"maybe they should start paying their educated workforce more and stop paying their educated workforce more"

@@nametab6415 I didn’t expect a red herring as terrible as this that completely fails to apply any shred of nuance to the conversation, and yet here you are. Pre-Brexit EU inequality studies identified London as the richest area in the entirety of the EU, almost double second place, yet also identified 7 of the 10 poorest regions in the EU as being in the UK, worse than places like Romania and Poland. But please, let’s make those inequalities even worse. It’s the Tory way and it’s been working out smashingly for the last 12 years.

The issue is there isn't the demand in the UK for almost any job. I know this because of the pay offered and the experience required, aka supply and demand (or lack of). The UK is on a downwards trajectory at every level I can think of. I don't think this will change anytime soon. Actually I think the UK is finished... leave whilst you can

I wouldn't worry about the £76,000. I have about that much too but it does not affect your credit score. One thing you could consider is certifying yourself in things in coding and data analysis.

I was in a similar position a few years ago, and ended up working in an unrelated field. A few friends who did go into lab work had some rocky years of being badly paid, but after gaining a bit of industry experience, there are lots of opportunities to move into better paid and more comfortable roles. If you can stick it out, take any potential on-the-job training, and apply for something better every year or 2, you'll soon be well set up for the rest of your working life. Personally I wasn't prepared to do what is essentially an unskilled production line job in a lab coat for minimum wage, after spending years getting a science degree. It does feel insulting. Though like the other reply says, you don't really have to worry about student debt.

Wow, I see that outside of the few grad scheme jobs that are thrown out every year pay at the bottom hasn't gone anywhere since I graduated 6 years ago...

yeah because biology is a notoriously useless and crappy degree

I left uni with 21k worth of debt and a decade later i have 21k worth of debt... thanks to interest rates pushing the amount up at about the same I'm slowly paying back. Crazy really the student debt situation

I'm studying for a BSc I cybersecurity - debt free - man I love Scotland 😊

@@dekmackie god damn Barnett formula

@@beanoboy62 na, just our taxes going back into the country for the folk here, instead of tory boy pockets

@@dekmackie Same situation for me in Russia! 😊 (Except my wage is miserable 💀)

Apprentice what?

where abroad? Isn't UK a western country where people from all over the world seek jobs? The only remaining country is US

Not to mention many graduate job post still mention a minimum experience of (Insert whatever) for multiple years, and I'm referring to working experience not knowledge or understanding.

​@@Carnax6969 but that's because everybody holds degrees now so companies are forced to input new filters to get the best candidates. Sure this video said that too many people going to university is not the problems but companies just don't spring out of a vacuum. If 9 out of 10 applicants have a first degree then your first class degree is not going to hold much value. If there are only 2 spaces for the job then companies have to look beyond your degree credentials to make the application process viable.

That can no longer be done due to brexit. British can no longer work abroad because of brexit

similar situation here, that is why so many people with engineering degrees end up working in some form of management

Didn't know Spain was like India lol

England, not Spain. I am talking Engineering. People claim there is a shortage of engineers in this country, but what they forget to mention is there is a shortage of "competent" engineers. Universities keep churning out imbeciles with masters degrees, and the competent ones go into construction management.@@RMatt2016

Where as many universities focus on the foreign students, since they are worth more money to them. The inevitably go back home afterwards and we lose a talented person to work for the country and pay taxes and make a home here.

@@SaintGerbilUK The foreign students mostly pay their own fees and expenses and are not subsidized by the Gov ... so they have no obligation to stay if they could earn more elsewhere

@@ulrichleukam1068 that's true yet they do, and by bringing their families and extended families they set down roots which ties them to the country.

If only your degree can make you realise how useless your comment is, and how out of touch you are.

"Education can be enriching and rewarding in itself, it doesn't have to lead to a job at the end. " In which case, does it need an exam? Does it need to be full time?

@@NorthDownReader I would say that if you receive a formal education, you should be awarded with something that demonstrates your competence. That may or may not require an exam. Part of why formal education is rewarding is precisely because you receive an indication of your competence in the form of a grade. Education doesn't have to be full time, but we don't exactly live in a society that makes flexible study easy. Most people can't afford to work part time, anyway. Personally, I think the idea that we get educated for the first portion of our lives, work in the middle and (provided we don't die) get to retire at the end is outdated and ludicrous. It would be great if people could in general keep their formal education going throughout their lives, mixing in a few sabbaticals here and there. Unfortunately though, that is for a privileged few.

'Enriched'.....I'd prefer having money for housing and food over being interesting at dinner parties!

@@mrmeldrew693 well yes I'm not saying people shouldn't work >< what I am saying is that education is good in itself

Thanks for the additional context!

That's helpful to know. Thanks :)

As long you're happy with your decision that's what matters 🙏🏾

university always better option many of these are lazy even with phd employers look for more than education work ethic with degree status = success many claim they cannot find work

But without your passport your life would have taken a different path.

I mean, I don't have either of those things (just an MEng and 3 yrs relevant xp) and I'm earning more than that in UK engineering...

Take a look at hongkong, that’s where I’m going, the wages are better, cost of living is lower, and post Covid there are a ton of open positions waiting to be filled If your specialisation is wanted there the government will help you getting settled in too And if your willing to travel 50mins to work rent is on par with uk city’s

welcome to why I work in construction management. I was earning more than that with less than a years experience

It's.. not real debt. 83% of Graduates do not pay off their loan and it's wiped after 30 years. Essentially it functions as a timed higher tax rate, after graduating you pay slightly more tax for 3 decades. The student loans company isn't going to repossess your assets if you become unemployed, if you don't have a job, you don't pay towards your student loan, if you get a decently paying job, you begin paying towards it.

@@doghat1619 Debt is debt. It caps the money you earn for 30 years, affects your credit rating and loan prospects, not to mention the psychological impact of having multiple decades of debt shouldered onto you from the start of your career, for pretty much the entirety of your career. And the threshold to automatically start paying down the debt is £22k. If you think that is a well paying job, I feel sorry for you. Minimum wage is 19k ffs LOL

@@SubjectiveFunny There are quite obviously different kinds of debt. If you don't make your mortgage payments, the bank takes away your house. If you aren't paying your student loans... the student loan company cannot take away your education, nor seize your property. "And the threshold to automatically start paying down the debt is £22k." It's 9% OVER 22k. So if you earn 23,000 pounds per year, you repay 9% of £1000, which is... £90 a year. So if you're BARELY earning above the minimum threshold, you pay essentially nothing. You're also just literally wrong about it affecting your credit score. Student Loans in the UK have no impact on your credit rating, no impact on how you'll be assessed for trying to get a mortgage. And if it isn't paid off in 30 years, it is completely wiped away. Does any other debt do that? Will banks forgive the small business loan or mortgage you took out if it's still owed 30 years in the future?

@@doghat1619 You convinced me, I think we should start slapping 60k debt onto kids in primary school too. In fact, get 'em when they come out the womb. Instant debt, no downsides, only upsides. I never knew the system was so helpful and kind, literally no negatives at all!! Thanks for opening my mind!

@@SubjectiveFunny Most reasonable youtube commenter

Exactly. The economy overall is stagnant.

that might be true for you but the problem these days is schools colleges and 6th forms all encourage the wrong candidates to go uni. you need to be clever and self driven to succeed at uni but they try and persuade dumb and lazy candidates to go uni so that the school/college/6th form gets better stats and funding. I’d recommend an apprenticeship to any of these people as you end up with no debt, get a qualification, job experience and an actual job and salary at the end of it. no brainer

You might simply be a very skilled candidate who shines because of your own qualities and skills, but are wrongly attributing that to attending university. A line of thought which decades of aggressive advertising has sadly encouraged: the idea that the degree/university makes the person rather than individual qualities.

Yeah but that's MMath. Not Bsc Ancient Egyptian Pottery.

@@huzi37709😂😂😂😂

@@huzi37709Steve Jobs took a calligraphy class in college that informed the style he later implemented at Apple. You sound like you’re in a right-wing hell hole that only finds merit in staying within a narrow lane. Anxiety much?

Where I live you’ll be lucky to get a graduate stem related job above £22k…

@@TragicHeroine-kd6uy I work as a process chemist and make £48k there are high paid stem degrees out there but they're few and far between if you're willing to travel/relocate you'll find one easy. Some production based science jobs pay well esp if they have nights/weekend shifts.

Chemist I here on 25k - it seems if you want decent pay you shouldn't be a scientist. Then people wonder why this country is such a giant dump hole...

What if a student doesn’t want to get into a STEM career? It scares me that the Tories are forcing young people into subjects they may not want to do and will be stuck in a career they hate for the rest of their lives.

@@inesaudievre-ward7034 no one is forcing you, you are free to study gender studies or intersectional science or whatever bs you want,but dont start crying when you are broke and homeless.

Yep. I'll encourage my kids into a trade and buy them vans/tools etc over just pointlessly dumping £50,000 into a 'sports science' type degree.

@@inesaudievre-ward7034You've just described over 90% of the human work force globally. Most people don't have the luxury of doing work they love, they do the work they can for the best wages they can get. I wanted to be a journalist, I studied for it even in college and got my diploma with honors. Then the reality of the world punched me in the face, laughed and said "Hah! There's no work or money in that, you'll starve and never feed your family" and after 6 years of trying to make a liveable wage, I gave up and took up a trade in my late 20's where I make a little over 4x what I was as a journalist. I hate my job frankly, like most people - but I and 90% of people don't have the luxury of doing work we love. That is a fantasy for most people. Being realistic and practical ensures there is a good roof over our heads, food on the table and some financial security for hard times.

@@posh7079why do you should so anger and bitter?

I’d disagree

and thats why we got Brexit .... what is easy to use robots for .... ? Tradesmen or Brain surgeons ? You English teacher is not a gypsy fortune teller

She’s right mate. I know plumbers and locksmiths who are earning really decent money working for themselves- yeah it takes time to get off the ground, but once that hurdle is out the way, you can really earn big bucks.

@@asimiqbal2040 is it all about money though

@@JC-gl7ee unfortunately in the current times we’re living in, it’s becoming more and more about money.

This is not a universal experience, the big4 are struggling to fill graduate roles as less people want to go into accounting than before.

You don't need to go to university for accounting. Easy to study for independently.

Having US citizenship, you are one of the luckiest. US wages soar in comparison to other western countries, including Canada

@@mrmeldrew693 Sadly found that out too late 😅

I’m considering doing my masters in the US and I figured that it might be an easier avenue to get into a well paid job after graduation there. The U.K. just isn’t it.

Apprentice engineers are better than graduate ones?

​@@user-op8fg3ny3japprentice trained engineer here (aerospace manufacturing - composites). I would say so, many I worked with didn't know the basics, very bright and clever yes. But from my experience, the seasoned engineers prefer apprentices because they didn't have to teach the basics. Such as how to use a torque wrench. Spent much of my time with graduates setting them up to carry out R&D tasks. Also had a culture of, oh this drill bit is blunt it must be thrown away and replaced with new because they were not aware that they could be sharpened. Another one I found was parts turning up on the shop floor that could be assembled to another in all sorts of ways, rather than setting up the parts so that it would only fit one way. Companies are dulling down skilled workforce on shop floors so it's the engineers job to ensure those on the shop floor (semi-skilled) can not assemble parts incorrectly. Sandwich years are helpful, but no replacement for a 3-5 year apprenticeship.

@@user-op8fg3ny3j It used to be that getting graduates was less hassle, we wouldn't have to train them up to graduate level, they would arrive at a really good standard, but the standards over the years have dropped so much. Not just knowledge but work ethic, how they present themselves, just basic stuff like being punctual etc. So in the end we invested in a apprenticeship scheme and now we train them to graduate level ourselves. They still do their degree but they're trained by us instead of going to college and university full time.

@@user-op8fg3ny3j well from a high level overview, an apprentice will have 3 years of experience when a graduate starts, both will have the same qualifications too assuming the employer sends them to uni with their apprentiship. Experience is valuable. i think you also have far more people picking degrees on how much money they could make, not factoring in if its something they either care about or want to do. far more of those people need to be weeded out in hireing

Have you thought that maybe workplace demands too much nowadays? Many companies are extremely specialized in some absurd field, which is never taught in schools, because you are literally the only company in the world doing that stuff, its not worth teaching it.

It’s already begun here in the US. Many companies won’t even look at your resume unless you tick their education box.

Nursing for many years didn't require a degree and now it does, same with police officers.

In my experience it is the teachers pushing kids into university, because they use it in their own advertising

Well having worked in a direction that has not worked out due to having abilities and interests in a given area trying to get a foot to a chartered qualification but the main problem is if things don't work out and your stuck in a drudgery job trying to get something doable but nobody replies to CVs these days we will get to the point where decent jobs don't exist if migrants keep on taking them its like that where I work even being second generation immigrant.

​@@Peacefulnessxxxsimilar experience here being 2nd gen. 1st class degree in business and marketing, worked in bars thru uni (before pandemic struck -- class of covid19 lol). Can't lie, I'm dissapointed in the lack of actual jobs. I've explored my options, even taking on 2 apprenticeships after graduating. One in a trade (5.30am starts had me), one in an office (fired on "mental health grounds"). I graduated uni 2021, no ceremony as we were in between lockdowns. The graduate market is a shambles. Like, non existent, as far as I'm concerned.

@@rhymesandvibes yeah nevermind others I know have it even worse with no job or a far worse one as the managers are great but it's not stable and started being minimum wage after the hikes as only engineers have it good if you get to become one its really hard to get into.

That rather depends on the individual. Not everybody is motivated by high pay: I wasn't. I wanted to do a job I enjoyed and that required a PhD.

Exactly! I have a communication degree but i’m in the finance industry. It doesn’t matter half the time what degree you have. It’s your ability to think outside the box that gets you a job!

I would never take that, that's ridiculous

That doesn’t explain the differences between the north and London, or the UK v the US

It actually does. There are not enough graduate jobs therefore students should be aware of that and not expect amazing jobs fresh out of their degrees.

Having lived in the north and south both for uni, and now living in the north for a grad job, Im led to believe it’s not a north/south divide. It’s an england/london divide. I have spent most of the past two years living in Leeds/Manchester, and prior to that I spent 3 years in Portsmouth/Southampton. Both these regions of the country feel similar in terms of public services, economic activity, green spaces etc (portsmouth marginally felt like the most neglected out of the 4). I have friends from London and it’s genuinely a different world there. The pay scales are insane, and the rent is even worse. The government focuses way too much on London at the moment and it needs to change. Although having said that, I know a considerable number of people who have gotten jobs in Manchester since the end of uni and it does seem like the new up & coming place to be for decent wages and cheaper rents.

@@rakuu9843 This - exactly this. London is the only part of the economy that makes money any more (dirty money at that - London is the world capital of money laundering) so all the investment goes into London, all the legislation makes sure that London's position as a global financial centre and it's economic engine is protected. The rest of country just gets whatever scraps we can from London's table.

But if you sent all those people to trade school wouldn’t we get a massive over supply of plumbers, I thinks traded pay well only because not enough people do them, and if they started as you suggest rates would go down

not really theres so many trade shortages right now. trades are cheaper to learn but you need to work harder for it, most people choose the easy option which is uni.@@jimpaddy79

Oof. I know without a doubt in the U.S. (I'm American) that your degrees would be earning you no less than $70K and even that might be low. Continuing to stay in the UK really makes your job a work of heart and that's admirable.

@@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley not that I’m trying to put any job occupation down but I often think to myself when I see on the side of the bus “drive this bus, starting salary £27k”, I’m there thinking “is it worth just quitting my hospital job to drive a bus, pays more money and no overtime…”. Public salaries in the UK are an absolute joke…

How did you start as an MLA if your degree was accredited? You can become a trainee and complete your portfolio after you finished your degree to get a BMS job.

@@Davserban essentially you have to in the UK get experience before applying for higher paid roles as experience where virtually everyone has a degree is king. I got somewhat lucky when the pandemic hit as they were employing en-mass (I was around 1 of 50 MLAs) in a lab of 400 people total (before I was promoted to an AP). After this, it made my life easier as I was offered my IBMS portfolio and the chance to come back to the lab afterwards during my degree to have work signed off. So, if you don’t know what to do say should a sample or chemical spill and can’t answer it in an interview properly, it will impact your chances of employment, qualified or not. 🙂

@@Andrew_BIake Wait, you're not even earning $27K?! Oh my god...I work customer service over the phone for a small office and make $43K (before tax). That's just under middle class here. Now, all this being said...I suppose the more important question is what the cost of living is like in your area? Because perhaps your income is appropriate for your area. Okay, very rarely is that true, lol. I live in a state that has had some of the slowest wage growth in the entire country,but the cost of living is lower...to an extent. This city is growing and now everyone wants to raise rent. While I'm able to keep my head above the water with my most expensive bills being a car note (pretty much mandatory in the U.S., unfortunately) and rent, I live paycheck to paycheck. The pandemic caused some shakeups to happen but we probably won't see a rise like that for awhile. But still...geez, less than $27K for your degrees is just...highway robbery. Might have to learn the art of negotiation for your next job hunt and when asked what you expect to make for your salary, give a number that realistically is worth your skills. They'll counter your amount (should you get an offer), but never take it. Give another number, your real number, that's just a little bit lower than what you put on your application. Maybe it won't work at all, but at this point, you don't really have anything to lose, it seems...

Did you watch the video? The problem is an *oversupply* of humanities subjects over stem. Also by "Humanities and Arts", what we mean are stuff like English, Gender Studies, Creative Writing, History, Classics, Media Studies. In the age of AI and manual labour disappearing due to automation, a nation will slowly become unproductive if we have to *TOO MUCH* people graduating with these degrees. This is because they don't produce as nearly as an economic output as people who do STEM, Economics, Law and Politics. With our cultural aversion to maths, it is no wonder that our nation has low productivity. How can you expect people who had preconceived prejudices about maths being "elitist" who into adulthood have no basic grasp of fundamental concepts of statistics, maths and other hard skills can ever contribute to society.

@@inbb510nah bro don’t slander English

@@itsawill9268 , I'm not necessarily slandering English degrees but the oversupply of said graduates. Companies and jobs just don't spring out of a vacuum hence having an oversupply of these degrees will obviously lead to lower wages as there is diminishing economic returns for every one more English student graduating. Companies can't just overstaff as that will lead to a bigger decrease in wages an economic productivity (that's the case with our railway workers, one of the problem is that it is overstaffed and many there are averse to using new methods and technologies which require far less human resources). Also as I said earlier, in the age of AI and rapid technological growth, just having a Humanities degree just simply doesn't cut it anymore. Traditional Manual labour and office work is slowly disappearing due to AI being more cost efficient and better for many service industries.

But STEM subjects lead to poor paying jobs here too? It's all fucked regardless of your degree.@@inbb510

It’s almost like the mantra of 50% of young people going to university was a political point scoring exercise and not a well thought out policy.

​@@pratosaurusrex1128who wants people to depend on government handouts and reward helplessness? Used to be just the red team, but now it could be red or blue.

@@SaintGerbilUK I think most don’t but the fact that so many are is a damning indictment that successive governments have failed put policies help the country to adapt to the UK’s place in the world (economically speaking).

@@pratosaurusrex1128 No I agree, its not most of the general public, I think it is most university leavers, and definatly entierly too many people for the system to support them.

@@SaintGerbilUK I see what you are getting at. But I don’t think it’s the university leavers’ fault though. At 18, if society tells you that university is the pinnacle of education, and your parents (if they went to uni) tell you that you need to get the ‘university experience’, then of course you would want to better yourself. Labour in 1997, then the Tories/Lib Dems in the early 2010s have created this problem and mismanaged it to no end.

I'm sorry, there might be some disconnect here. Are colleges different from universities or in some sort a precedent before university? In Sweden, universities can carry out their own independent research, while also often featuring more humanities programmes. Colleges have them too, but research is more often through a university

@@Abraxium In uk college is the education before university, usually. The commenter is reffering to sixth form college. Colleges usually provide a wider range of qualifications than sixth forms, but they also contain sixth form qualifications. Sixth Form is like the finals for uk kids (16-18), where they take A levels or Btecs. Univerisities look at your sixth form results/grades to enroll/decline (if you are an undergraduate).

Unfortunately, apprenticeships can't be pulled out of a hat. Employers have to want to offer them, and be willing to set up the procedures and funding. And in a something-for-nothing, short-termist world, that is being becoming difficult. And the pay is often low in apprenticeships. Moreover, budgets in the Public Service sector are going to be severely squeezed over the next few decades, so there are not a lot opportunities there. The sad fact is employers that are willing to offer and invest apprenticeships is very limited. So, where they do exist, competition is really high. So, what you can do yourself is be pro-active in finding opportunities to acquire experience, and to consider synergies in fields related to your discipline, and opportunities abroad. In other words, you need to analyse the market for your skills, and treat yourself as a product that needs to be relevant and marketed to prospective employers. Especially, if you seek employment in a world where the prediction that AI will take over your field within a decade. And perhaps more importantly, consider your personal goals and motivations. You need to be guided by them. What has meaning for you, and gives you purpose should guide your decisions. Always keep your priorties in mind. Look as your life as something to be designed by you. That means perhaps you have to be more experimental and adventurous, in order to create the life you want to lead, and don't be afraid of change. Good Luck.

@@BigHenFor It's true that there are regulations and administrative hurdles just for an apprenticeship program, and not many companies are willing to go through all that hassle. But if the government approached it with an easier way for companies to jump into the program, it would provide more opportunities to future generations and also benefit the business industry. It's true that the wages aren't high for apprenticeships, but most colleges pay for attendance only £30 a week (not sure if that's changed, but they did when I was at college). So why not pay them a bit more to learn and work, even if the wage is small? It's more than what you would get by attending. Even in the long run, not only do students walk out with a fresh set of new skills, but they also have work experience, and in some cases, they get hired by the company, increasing their wages and even climbing up the ladder based on their potential skills. The world is changing and it's important to recognize that automation, AI, and robotics are becoming more prominent. For instance, companies like McDonald's, which used to hire a large workforce, now rely on a fraction of the employees they once did. They are now looking to push robots to handle serving, and with self-checkout, there's really no need for many workers besides one or two. Even food standards in the restaurant chain have dropped to the point that all it takes is to heat it up. Amazon is no different; they are already pushing for robots to sort out packages. I'm not saying that workers will be obsolete, but if this trend continues, it's going to take a significant hit. AI is still only in its early stages, and over time, it will become highly proficient. It can already perform complex coding, design websites, generate art, and much more. There are even discussions about AI becoming capable of analyzing health problems and providing solutions, potentially impacting industries like healthcare in the near future. Companies are hiring fewer people these days, and even if they demand workers back, one person has to do the job of ten people due to staffing shortages. Companies are reluctant to hire more, and quality standards have dropped because most businesses prioritize cost over quality. The new generation is turning to social media, whether it's TikTok, Twitch, UKposts, or even OnlyFans, as a career path. Traditional employment now often demands longer hours but less pay, with an increase in stress and depression. Countries are experiencing slow economic growth due to decreased productivity and lower work performance. It's a critical issue, and the impacts are already evident. However, even social media platforms are not without their challenges; individuals are overwhelmed with advertisements and misleading information, which is often influenced by the government. The current generation has to compete with billions of people and stay relevant by following the latest trends. Others are looking more into AI for quick cash. If the government doesn't get its act together and reform both the education and work industries, the future generation will face significant challenges, and the economy will continue to decline. The poor are the ones who are having it hard, it's not the rich. I may be looking ahead, but it's crucial to address the problems of tomorrow today.

Absolutely spot on. Thank you.