Business Column - An interesting time to be a student

An interesting time to choose to be a student. A second round of London protests has again prompted examination of the motivations and rewards for this particular career move. Those who are set on attending a Higher Education establishment may be battling with their own demons (financial or otherwise), but it is another sentiment which I have been examining recently.

I came from a predominantly University-going sixth form college, where two camps quickly formed in my 18 year-old peer group of the time. Those cultivating their University options positioned themselves knee-deep in prospectuses and submitted to the mercy of UCAS. After a few months of shuffling by those who were unsure, this only left those set against going to University as a remainder. What amazed me was the virile and stalwart defensive against those going to University adopted by those pursuing jobs or vocational courses instead of University.

Interestingly I have clocked this distinctive thread throughout society and business ever since. There are a fired-up contingent of individuals going straight into industry from school at either 16 or 18, who likely accrue at least three years experience by the time most graduates even don a suit for their first job interview. The net result of the two-camp predication in our offices and workplaces sometimes seems to be a simmering resentment of students by those who never had the (relative) pleasure.

Hard to say whether the outsiders view is one of envy, animosity, indifference or indeed ignorance in this case. Perhaps it is more singularly related to the fact that there is a working generation who were not offered the same opportunities as the kids of the 80’s and 90’s. Of course this has been the topic of much fervent debate in recent months where it is claimed an increase in tuition fees and cuts to education services are strangling the very opportunities which are hailed as golden by our elders.

We need a mix of skill sets and education levels in our national industry. We need diversity in business in order for ideas to thrive and be properly implemented. There is a real need to try and understand our working peers with a compassion and sense of team spirit that perhaps could have been neglected before the labouring Global Financial Crisis, in favour of chasing commission or “just being out for oneself”. I believe that the businesses which will be successful in coming years are those which are beginning to discard predispositions towards class and educational stature, instead favouring relevant practical skills and the right kind of attitude.

It is a time of opportunities. Regardless of whether you are a university graduate the employment market is being forced through a die into a new shape. Really the only question is whether you took the right level of education for what you think you would like to do, and the rest rapidly becomes history once you start work. I hope for our sake that any animosity between the ‘uni’ and ‘non-uni’ camps can be abated in an era where school-leaving entrepreneurs can create millions, and equally graduates can still find jobs which provide them a solid return on their tuition fee investment.