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Original poster

What Level of education do your parents have?

116 replies

Holliemorrisonx · 21/07/2019 16:12

As we have the threads about parents jobs , what about parents education

I think one has a degree and one left school at 16.

OP posts:
RuthW · 21/07/2019 16:57

Both left school at 14 as was the norm in late 40s/early 50s.

If my dd was answering she would say mum left at 15 and dad at 16. Both went into full time work. (Early/mid 80s)

TravellingSpoon · 21/07/2019 16:57

My mum has a level 3 teaching assistant qualification whixh she gained much later in life.

My dad left school before the exams and worked in a bakery. He is barely literate and cannot write a birthday card without help. Unfortunately he is also stubborn as a mule so will not accept any help to change this despite several different offers.

ContactLight · 21/07/2019 17:03

Left school at 14, Army, then electronics engineer.
Left school at 15, Legal secretary.

Both deceased.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

General education
DramaAlpaca · 21/07/2019 17:05

DF left school at 15, which was the school leaving age then. He had no qualifications but went into the family business which he ended up managing within a few years.

DM got 5 O levels in 1951, the year they were introduced. She's bright, if she'd had the opportunity she could've done really well academically but circumstances meant she had to get a job.

I did O & A levels & was lucky enough to be able to go to university in the early 80s, with no fees or student loans.

AnnaMariaDreams · 21/07/2019 17:05

DM is a primary teacher. In those days they were given a certificate of teacher training but it’s a 3 year course so would be a degree now.
DF has a BSc and a diploma in marketing from Glasgow University.

MadameJosephine · 21/07/2019 17:06

My parent are from a very working class background, education was not a priority for them really, they had to get out to work to help support the family.

My dad left school to start work at 14 and has no formal qualifications.

My mum was similar , she did go to college in her 30’s and did an access course but ill health meant she never actually made it to uni

My brother and I both have degrees, he has an MA and I have 2 BSc and am about to start the second year of my part time MSc

Rainbowknickers · 21/07/2019 17:07

Both parents left school at 15
My mother is as thick as two short planks
My father is Mensa intelligent
He taught himself after leaving school
She just couldn’t be bothered
Odd thing is she climbed to the top of the career ladder working at Betty’s in York but left when she was expecting me-she’s a born leader
My father took a job at rowntrees-and stayed at the same level all his working life-he’s more a follower

Frith2013 · 21/07/2019 17:08

Grammar school and O levels. She’d be encouraged to stay on these days.

BSc.

NeverSayFreelance · 21/07/2019 17:10

Dad left school at 16, mum at 17. She had a professional qualification but no degree, he has nothing.

I have a first class honours 👩‍🎓

Frith2013 · 21/07/2019 17:11

We 3 siblings have 5 degrees between us.

BendydickCuminsnatch · 21/07/2019 17:13

Dad has a degree through clearing and then some kind of business masters thing.... what is it called..... aaagh can’t remember. Had a very satisfying and successful career and recently retired.

My mum started a degree in teaching but didn’t like being away from my dad so left uni and then later did a college course in teaching once she’d had kids. I think.

My sister went to Cambridge for undergrad and then got a PhD elsewhere.

I barely scraped A Levels and had no interest in university.

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate my parents being open to different avenues for their children and acknowledging or different strengths! I was never pressured to go to uni thank god, despite my sister being so academic.

happypotamus · 21/07/2019 17:14

They were both the first in their working class families to go to university and get degrees (this was in the 70s). They met at university. None of their siblings went to university.
My siblings and I have all gone to university

BendydickCuminsnatch · 21/07/2019 17:15

An MBA! That’s it! My dad did an MBA while we were young.

cptartapp · 21/07/2019 17:15

Both left school at 16. My DF worked on the factory floor all his life, and my DM as a bank clerk, in a betting shop and as a cleaner, although she was very intelligent but her brothers got to further their education whilst she was expected to get a job.
They prioritised our education and I went to uni and have a first class honours degree and a lifestyle they could only have dreamed of at my age.
Both sadly deceased but I will always be grateful for them encouraging me to do more.

sweetkitty · 21/07/2019 17:16

Both of mine left school at 15 with no qualifications, my mother has never really worked all her life, my fathers a plumber.

I was the first in the family to stay in education post-16 and go to uni, now have two degrees.

Ironically this has made me a bit of a black sheep in that I’ve always been told I think I’m better than everyone else stuck up etc.

Lazypuppy · 21/07/2019 17:20

Both went to university

gamerwidow · 21/07/2019 17:20

Both left school at 15 with no qualifications. They've had a variety of jobs over the years. All fairly low paid though.
They were very proud when I got into grammar school and was the first in the family to go to university.

MinnieMountain · 21/07/2019 17:26

DM has a few O levels.
DF got one A level at school, then qualified as a social worker in his 30s.

I have a degree and a professional qualification. DSis has a BA.

Soontobe60 · 21/07/2019 17:31

Mum left school at 16, pregnant at 18, 5 kids by 25, went to college at 35 and got a degree in teaching. Still alive at 84.
Dad left at 14 and worked til he was 65 in mainly manual jobs. Died at 80.
I left school at 16, married at 23, mum by 25, went to uni at 26 and got a degree in teaching. Still working but retiring very soon.
Both my older sisters have got degrees as has 1 brother.
My DDs both have degrees and have 'professional' high paying careers.

justanothernameonthewall · 21/07/2019 17:46

DM got a diploma in primary teaching and laterally went on to get her master's and become head teacher.
DF left school at 14 but returned to college when he married DM. She supported him through college and he got a degree in economics. He went on to do some amazing and outing advertising and run shops and a guest house. DM was the main breadwinner at the start of their marriage and before they retired. She had a period of not working while she had the 3 of us.
DB is head of science at a private school. DS is a primary teacher. I have no degree but run my own business.

Bloodybridget · 21/07/2019 17:52

They both left school at 14, in 1922 in my father's case. I have some certificates he got at school, but I don't know what they were worth in terms of "qualifications". Anyway his first job was as a lift boy in a block of serviced flats. My mother left school to dance.

tobee · 21/07/2019 18:02

My dad left at 15 with o levels and went to work in bank which he hated. But left and had a career he enjoyed after.

My mum left at 18 with a couple of a levels and worked in publishing which she loved.

But my sister went to Oxford University and I think both my parents would have loved to go. But it was never on their horizons at the time.

They are both in their 80s.

MrsBartlet · 21/07/2019 18:05

Both parents from a working class background and left school at 15. DM's brothers went on to higher education, with one of them getting a phd but she was expected to leave school and get a job as she was a girl Sad Ddad decided he had to leave as he was the only child of a widowed mum and she had just been diagnosed with heart disease so he felt he needed to go out and bring in some money. Both parents are very bright and could have done well in higher education if they had been allowed.

I have a degree from York and my Dd has just graduated from Cambridge. Not bad progress in 3 generations Smile

bigKiteFlying · 21/07/2019 18:06

Not sure with Mum -possibly some form of certificate Confused - her family wouldn't let her stay on for A-levels, I think, insisting she had to bring a wage in and pay rent. She did have job related qualifications she got while working and studying before she stopped to have us.

She was very bitter about their lack of support and insisted Dsis and I should go as far as we could with education - though she wasn't keen on post graduate degrees in the end.

Dad left at 16 to work but spent many years at night schools getting more qulifications then in our childhood spent years getting a degree with OU.

OhTheRoses · 21/07/2019 18:08

I think it's interesting that many of my generation got jobs in the civil service at 16/18 or in banks (left school 1978). Those jobs now require graduates. It's disconcerting that many, many graduates (and I see a lot in my role) do not seem to be as fundamentally well educated as my peers who were educated either to O'Level or A'Level, were in the 1970s. All too often they are unable to construct a grammatically correct sentence or to work out a percentage when faced with an in-tray exercise for an entry level job.

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