Big dilemma for DD - what would you do?

[Blackenedsoul]

DD has accepted an offer for her Uni of choice to study Media in September. She’s been looking forward to going, had planned to live at home and travel the 20 minutes in every day.

She had a part time job for a few months in a local office attached to a very small but very busy manufacturing company. She’s very well thought of and works in the office on a Saturday, doing admin, answering enquiries, emails, booking appointments etc.

Today they’ve offered her a full time, permanent post in the office and have offered to start training her up in the use of their accounts systems etc, give her more responsibility. The salary is 18k to start rising to around a max of 25k once fully trained.

This has come as a bolt from the blue, DD really enjoys the job and thinks she’d be happy doing it full time but at the same time was also happy to go off and have the Uni experience, make new friends and study and have fun.

She’s aware that lots of students leave Uni and end up falling into admin roles vey much like this and is now wondering whether bothering with Uni is worth it.

We’ve told her the decision is entirely hers but she’s really finding it hard to decide.

So, the great of mumsnet - what would you do?

Another point for those saying work for a year and then go to uni, how likely the DD be to want to give up a full time job and full time salary once she is used to that income?

It’s all very well saying you can go back to education any time in life. This is technically true, but how many people really do that once they have a family to support and are used to a full time income?

@SpringTides5

Another point for those saying work for a year and then go to uni, how likely the DD be to want to give up a full time job and full time salary once she is used to that income?

It’s all very well saying you can go back to education any time in life. This is technically true, but how many people really do that once they have a family to support and are used to a full time income?

Nothing to suggest she will start a family in the next year! Plenty of people do a year and then go to uni, and if she doesn't want to maybe uni isn't for her. There are so many options now for further study anyway that there will probably be lots of opportunities.

My niece is currently at uni and she isn't really having much of a uni experience due to covid. They've been working on line and have small social bubbles. There no parities/freshers week/big social down the uni bar!
Although the covid19 vaccination programme is going well there is still talk of another wave (variant!) so personally with this economic situation and the lack of jobs, take the job, ask for progression/qualification and defer uni for at least a year until she sees how she feels about the job / uni / covid but this way she'll have good work experience on her cv and earned an income and if she's sensible she'll save some of this to pay off uni debt and enjoy once we're out the other side!

*Another point for those saying work for a year and then go to uni, how likely the DD be to want to give up a full time job and full time salary once she is used to that income?

It’s all very well saying you can go back to education any time in life. This is technically true, but how many people really do that once they have a family to support and are used to a full time income?*

Yes, but people give up salaties to start families. If its something you want, then you do it. If OP's DD isn't tbat bothered once earning money, then she wasnt really that botheted in the first place.

Sorry if it's been said before, i havwnt RTWT, but how is your DD financing uni? A year out, or possibly not going at all could be financially beneficial. I personally would not advise my DD to get a student loan for a soft subject.

25k might be the top salary at this particular company, but that doesnt mean she couldn't get the training, a, couole if year's expeirence and go elsewhere where there was more career origression if that interested her?

@jobling

My niece is currently at uni and she isn't really having much of a uni experience due to covid. They've been working on line and have small social bubbles. There no parities/freshers week/big social down the uni bar! Although the covid19 vaccination programme is going well there is still talk of another wave (variant!) so personally with this economic situation and the lack of jobs, take the job, ask for progression/qualification and defer uni for at least a year until she sees how she feels about the job / uni / covid but this way she'll have good work experience on her cv and earned an income and if she's sensible she'll save some of this to pay off uni debt and enjoy once we're out the other side!

Great points. I agree.

Go to university!!!! Insane not to. There will be other admin jobs, omg!! This isn’t a dilemma it’s a total no brainer!

True, but it's highly competitive. If you had two great candidates and were struggling to decide between them, would you go with the history grad or the media studies one?

I work in media. The person who would get the job is the one that performs best in the tests and interview. Many I work with do have traditional academic degrees from the top universities, but there are several with other degrees, like media studies, film studies, etc, from “lesser” universities.

Another point for those saying work for a year and then go to uni, how likely the DD be to want to give up a full time job and full time salary once she is used to that income?

It’s all very well saying you can go back to education any time in life. This is technically true, but how many people really do that once they have a family to support and are used to a full time income?

I agree with pp some people have no imagination.

I recommended going to uni within the next 4 years, and taking a subject she knows she wants to do and where it will take her.

I left school at 16 with not one single GCSE to my name.(I just never turned up to sit exams).

by 20 I had load of NVQs and work related qualifications. Had worked for small family businesses and blue chip companies. With a job offer from an international company that wanted to send me to different offices abroad for further industry training. I earned a shit load, with potential to go as far as I wanted. Had a my own house and car.

At 21 I went to Uni.
wish I hadn't bothered

There is no reason that OPs DD will be stuck on 25k for the rest of her life whether she goes to Uni or not.

I work in media. The person who would get the job is the one that performs best in the tests and interview. Many I work with do have traditional academic degrees from the top universities, but there are several with other degrees, like media studies, film studies, etc, from “lesser” universities

I'm sure this is true for some industries, but it certainly isn't for others. The OP's DD clearly has great potential, given that she has been offered a permanent role at the age of 18, on the basis of a part-time temporary job. She shouldn't be limiting herself by her choice of degree.

Personally, I think media studies is a really under-rated degree. A media studies degree does not put me off as an employer. But it does carry a stigma. If the OP's DD were passionate about doing it, I'd say go for it. But, as she is't, she'd be better off with something less stigmatised.

Defer for a year, especially in these covid times.

In that year, either negotiate their sponsorship to gain a recognise accountancy qualification and, at the same time look for a training contract from a larger company, to provide something to negotiate

Plenty of time to do a degree when there is something she really wants to do, which can only be done with that degree. The opportunity to study will not go away and anyone will be much better placed in life without the millstone of student debt.

I don't subscribe to the view that media studies degrees are worthless but it can't be denied that the market is saturated, the really exciting opportunities tend to require contacts and ability to do without salary at first and, most importantly, you don't need the degree as a qualification for anything.

A media savy qualified accountant would be very, very much in demand for really interesting roles. The accountancy qualification would be much more useful that a media studies degree.

Especially in media jobs, there is no salary premium for having a media degree

The challenge these days is very often for graduates to get on the first rung of the career ladder, to demonstrate that they have experience of the real world. A year working in the job would be useful evident if that and could lead to work in the holidays. The training contracts equally get you up that first run.

A media studies degree, not so much.

A decent employer will provide opportunities to study snd get further qualification in order to keep good people. Media company's are typically inundated with people prepared to work for peanuts.

I know which I prefer.

Take the job.

To be honest, I know several people with top degrees in things like history and English from top universities who regret doing those and wish they’d done some more useful instead.

I’d go for the job. She can still do a degree anytime she wants and with covid it just seems a much better option at this time. She’ll love having her own money and independence at 18 it will be great for her confidence.

Take the job. Defer uni place and see where she is in a year.

I would have usually said Uhi- but the debt, the covid situation, the recession. I think she should take the job. Save like mad and reevaluate in a year.

She’s lucky and valued. And this kind of work experience will help her immensely to grow as a person and to help her make decisions regarding her career.

I'd encourage Uni

"She can still do a degree anytime she wants "

Arrgh! No, she can't. Being a mature student is really not the same experience as I've mentioned before. She won't want to be 35 sitting in a classroom of 18 year olds.
She might be able to do the OU, but not everyone manages to find the time with a job and maybe a family too and then she misses out on the student experience too.

"She’ll love having her own money and independence at 18 it will be great for her confidence."

And in a few years' time she'll be looking at her friends who got the education she never did. The people I know who missed out on uni when they wanted to go suffered quite a hit to their confidence.
You have your whole life to be doing an office job!

Either take the job all out, or defer for a year & see how she likes it. A previous poster said a top of £25k not much of a salary - my beloved late husband was a qualified professional and didn't make that much. Also, many of my friends did Uni degrees with high hopes and ended up either unemployed or in teaching, because their degrees were useless in the Real World job market. She's got nothing to lose by taking on a job she already knows she enjoys and is valued at, but if she goes the Uni route right away she runs the risk of being jobless or in a job she doesn't like as much with a sh*tload of student debt to boot.

@SpringTides5

Another point for those saying work for a year and then go to uni, how likely the DD be to want to give up a full time job and full time salary once she is used to that income?

It’s all very well saying you can go back to education any time in life. This is technically true, but how many people really do that once they have a family to support and are used to a full time income?

Yep. The admin trap.

OP has her whole life to be working in an office, but only a limited few years to go and have the young student experience.

@Ninkanink

She can get a university degree at any point. It is not now or never, by any means.

As I've mentioned many times, she can get a degree any time e.g. through the OU or evening courses, but it's much harder once you have to work too. And she can't get the student experience if she's 40 even if she can afford to give up her job to study.

I’ve just looked up media degree to find out more and this came up:

Film studies, media studies and drama have been ranked among the most “pointless degrees” according to new research. The study found acting was the top waste of time, followed by outdoor adventure and environment and office skills. One in four graduates now regret having gone to university, the research shows.

I think I’d still go to uni though!

"One in four graduates now regret having gone to university, the research shows."

Do they really regret it though or do they just feel it didn't give them a great career?
We know that degrees don't parachute you into careers any more and that you may not earn more than without one, but that's not the only consideration. Education is valuable in itself.

@Gwenhwyfar ‘at any point’ doesn’t have to mean at 35 or 40. It can just as likely mean in a year, or two, or three. It is utterly stupid these days, imo, to go to university as a youngster for ‘the experience’ when you don’t have a clue what you want to do, and don’t have a general career progression or at least a passion or interest of some kind to follow. Especially right now with everything being so topsy turvy with covid.

I’m not stupid - I know all the pros of university. But there are cons too. Most people will only have one chance at a university education. It is stupid to squander it on something you’ve basically just picked out of a hat.

And yes, you’ve stated your view over and over...that doesn’t make it the only right opinion.

OP knows her daughter and I’m sure that together they can come to the right decision for her.

If I was an 18 year old at uni now, I'd wish I'd deferred a year.