Too Many University Graduates Being Created
University Graduates
According to a new survey that has just come out in the UK, but which would apply to Ireland too, the majority of university graduates are now in non-graduate jobs.Too many graduates are being created when the economy doesn’t need them all.
It’s all very well boasting about the number of people being sent to university and getting degrees there but much of it is a waste of money because there are not the jobs for them.
Indeed in the UK, 59% of university graduates are doing non-graduate jobs – that’s almost 3-in-5 being sent to university unnecessarily.
Ireland Would be Worse
It must be something similar, or even worse, in Ireland where unemployment rates are higher but we are still sending huge amounts of our children to university.
How many youngsters in Moville with degrees are working in non-graduate jobs? I’ve spoken to lots of them.
It must be a huge disappointment for them to study from he age of 5 to their early twenties to come out of university with a brand spanking new degree to find that the world doesn’t want them – in their specialised field anyway – or indeed for any job that needs a degree.
Boosting the Skills Level
In Britain they thought that if they increased the skills level the economy would benefit. However, that hasn’t happened.
It has had a knock-on effect, as jobs that never asked for degrees before, and don’t need degrees, are demanding degrees now.
This has been hitting those who didn’t go to university but have been doing the job perfectly well for years.
Conning Irish Youngsters
It’s all a bit of a con on our youngsters. If Ireland is the same as Britain (and it is probably worse) there will only be graduate level jobs for 2 out of every 5 of them who leave university with a degree.
That is a massive con on them who went there and studied so hard with such great hope for the future – only to find, with great disappointment, that the world doesn’t need them. That must be crushing psychologically for them.
Surely university places should be allocated on the basis of how much the economy needs them rather than just leaving it to the universities themselves.
Law Degrees
It seems that one of the worst is law. Youngsters going to university and who work hard to get a degree, don’t know that a very low percentage of them who get degrees in law will ever find work in the law field.
Why waste all that time and money training them when they will never use their degree? Surely it is not fair on them to accept so many youngsters to do law, and other, degrees, when there will be jobs for so few of them in their chosen profession at the end of the line.
Surely university places should be matched to the need for them in the economy. Maybe the country can allow some more university places than the country needs so that they can meet any expansion of the economy.
Waste of Money
However, Britain is producing two and a half times as many graduates as the economy needs – and Ireland is likely to be worse.
This is a massive waste of money and a massive con on our young people who assume that there is likely to be a job for them at the end of the line at graduate level.
Something needs to be done!