What are you on about there are jobs that don’t require a university education that are not only the province of low paid immigrants .
Most tradesmen do t go to university they learn their trade at colleges of further education .
Useful degree courses.
Contemporary Circus with Physical Theatre.
Baking Science and Technology.
Surf Science and Technology.
Tournament Golf.
Viking and Old Norse Studies.
Robin Hood Studies Pathway,
Pizza Hut Studies.
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If you want get a profession or a trade you have to study somewhere and be it college or university you have to do it .
If you want to work in stacking shelves or cleaning someone’s backside for peanuts they are both honest jobs I just wouldn’t like to do them nor would I expect young people to want to do them .
@Muddy , l don’t think they do anymore Muddy??
Where are these colleges of further education ??
We used to call them technical colleges,then polytechnics, and now they call
them university of this, and university of that ,and most of the curriculum is
now mainly the same as the original universities and the workshops have
have disappeared !! Also the apprenticeships, if you can get one !! Don’t fund
your technical training any more,myou have to pay for yourself !!
The government used to give the employer incentives to take appr!entices !!
Not anymore ?? And on top of this Maggie Thatcher allowed all the existing
company owners to sell their businesses( usually to foreign owners!) and
encouraged our owners to invest on the stock exchange instead of producing ?
My own apprenticeship lasted five years officially, but lasted six in fact as l
started work at age 14yrs ?? Plus, l had to serve my country for two years
when l completed my training !!
Compare this to the present school leaver today?
Leave school at 17yrs
study at uni for at least another 4yrs, but can be up to another 10yrs ??
So it is quite possible that you don’t do a stroke of “work” untill you are 31 yrs
old !!
Meantime you get free transport, free health and free laundry if you go home
for weekends !!
I stand by my view that our system is crap !
Donkeyman! 
Glenn is it too late to enrol in the clowns course? 
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Donkeyman where are you getting all this from ?
Of course there are colleges where they do vocational courses of all sorts and no they don’t all start work at 31.
Look on any building site you will see skilled young men electricians,plumbers carpenters they all had to learn their trade somewhere .
What on earth are you talking about Assman? Don’t you understand price incentives or disincentives? Arts degrees are more expensive to discourage people enrolling, Science and engineering degrees are cheaper to encourage enrollment.
It’s not complicated.
More nonsense, in NSW they are called TAFEs (Technical and Further Education) and just about every town has one for training apprentices, sewage workers and street cleaners etc
I thought you were a fully paid up member. 
I have to back Donkeyman in what he says about the way those establishments have slowly changed to what is now ‘university’. This happened slowly over the years with apprenticeships being seen as less in value than ‘universities’. This had a lot to do with the way it was thought ‘unfair’ that a minority went to university so this was to make it more equal and fair so everyone had the same opportunity. Two problems with this though, firstly it persuaded people that a university degree was at that time ‘worth’ more than a recognised apprenticeship so companies were less inclined to have apprentices. Then of course, when almost anyone could go to university and ‘learn’ about the work they wished to do, the degrees from university did not carry the same value to an employer. Now it’s recognised that many vocations and trades no longer have enough properly trained tradesmen, thanks to what happened.
How do I know this? Basically because I went through a six-year trade apprenticeship and for a lot of years, before retirement, saw many young people come out of university knowing all about the theory, having all the ‘pieces of paper’ but nothing about the actual practical work required. Apprenticeships are have now returned, they have been seen and recognised as the best way of learning, not just from books etc., but doing practical work with others who are fully trained, showing how it should be done.
At one time I was a joiner, learnt on the job.
Heating and ventilation engineer, learnt on the job.
Many other trades I am reasonably competent at again learnt on the job mainly building sites.
I have seen youngsters finding it difficult to change a three pin plug fresh out of uni.
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Baz there are lots of colleges about that are not universities.
They offer courses for example in construction - eg a one year general course s that give various aspects carpentry , electrical plumbing so they may chose which trade they are best suited too.They may then go on other courses to qualify for that trade which include practical work
This is true. Before the evolvement of Brunel Uni, there were Brunel Annexes to some higher technical colleges. Then after 1966 these tailed off as the main university took over. I attended the Brunel Annex to Acton Tech and that engineering foundation course set me up for life and further education.
Colleges are often the step before university, to obtain results necessary to enter university, close family have just gone through or are going through exactly that. Yes, there are colleges that give various aspects of working in a trade, companies wishing to take on apprentices often take suitable people from those colleges, signing them up for a recognised trade apprenticeship. I know a plumbing and heating company that do exactly that. Those apprentices then go on learning their trade which also incorporates day and evening release to attend college. From practical experience in the printing trade I have seen people who know about computers and are very good at that but know nothing about printing, they are usually paid for the hours they have put in, advised to get some training, perhaps applying again when that has happened. It sounds harsh but that’s the reality of having to know work from practical experience, not just having ‘pieces of paper’ to prove they have only learned from books and online etc.
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There are just too many certificates knocking about nowadays, “don’t need to interview you, just send me your certificate”. 
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Definitely bad practice. I used to sit on interview boards for new intake or promotions and I was mainly interested in what the candidate had to say rather than his/her papers previously viewed. Usually it only took a few minutes face to face before suitability for the position was either established in my mind or put into my mind’s pending folder.
Many ‘interviews’ nowadays are done on Skype, Zoom or FaceTime, apparently. That is after an online CV has been seen, the certificates are also sent online. Tough on those who don’t have those skills but that’s one thing many youngsters do have, they have to most of the time and for almost everything in their ‘modern’ technological lives!
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Aye, living our lives on a screen more and more now. Its quite disturbing.
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You are behind the times Spitty of course they have to send in certificates for a start .
Everyone has to send in a CV I order to be considered for employment
I feel sure the brains of youngsters nowadays are ‘wired differently’ to those of us who are of an older generation! If you have a problem with a computer, tablet or mobile phone ask someone who is just about a teenager to sort it for you!
It’s either that or below could be the result of trying to sort it out yourself:
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That’s me below 