To think DD should pick to study what she is interested in and not what she'll get a job in?

[Dovinea]

Help!

DD is 18 and is applying for uni very soon. She is very good at science and her main interest is everything associated with zoology. She says she has looked into job prospects and other stuff and says it's quite hard to find a job that would be interesting to her, so she'd mainly prefer the studying part, so she is planning on doing biomedical science, where the uni she is liking does a fast-track into the NHS year, so she can take up a job within there.

AIBU to think she should do the degree she will enjoy the most?

After doing her training as a biomedical scientist she can always go and work for the pharmaceutical companies. There are lots of sales, marketing, technical specialist roles for former lab trained personnel. She doesn't have to limit herself to working for the NHS

It's not easy. DS is considering an option that makes our toes curl in fear for his future prospects. However, it's a growth industry and he may yet prove us wrong and make a living. Or not. We have said our piece, and the decision is not ours to make.

Reading with interest as I have been thinking about this a lot recently given the discussion about university costs. My DD has no idea what she wants to do after school but thinks she would like to go to uni. Although she is few years off making any decisions, my feeling from reading comments here is that she should consider a vocational degree and something that will lead to employment over a degree for enjoyment. The costs involved are so high that I think it is seriously worth considering whether going to university simply for the experience is actually worth it when you are left starting life with a mountain of debt.

JustHope - as someone in the university sector, the thing I would advise most of all is if you don't have a clue what path you want to take but would 'like to go to uni' - then put it off. Don't go at 18 for the sake of it. Times have changed, the sector has changed, education and funding have changed. Go, yes - but when you know why you want to go and know you're doing something that you either love or you're confident will lead to the career you want. Either option is good. What is bad is drifting into it, at great expense - no matter how academically able you are.

This is what I'll be telling my children. I hope they go to uni, but only for the right reasons.

I dont know. The last biomedical science graduate I met was working in vodafone shop. He said the market is saturated with biomed science grads.

Is there a third option?

@FizzyGreenWater

Nailed it. I hired the first college counselor who said this.

Going to Uni immediately after IB, no matter where or what field, has no benefit.

If this was her yr10 gcse options I’d agree for “study what you enjoy” but degree level employment all the way. She sounds very sensible.

If I could go back in time, I'd go for employability. I went for an arts-based degree and did end up working in the sector, but couldn't live on my wage. Now working an admin-type role in a different sector and studying at night so I can progress in my career.

OP the degree is only for 3 years. The rest of her working life will be about 45 years!! It's more important she does something where she'll be able to get a good job. I'm sure she wouldn't find it rewarding if she ended up in a min wage retail job.

@Fizzy I completely agree with your advice. Sadly I think too many drift into going to uni because it’s the thing to do or it’s what their parents expect. If my DD is still unsure I will certainly be encouraging her to explore other things and perhaps gain some work and life experience before making a decision.

If she genuinely doesn’t think she’d want to work in Zoology afterwards and thinks she’d potentially enjoy biomedicine then I say she’s got the right idea.

If she would love to work in Zoology but is worried about a shortage of jobs/not enough career prospects then I (idealistically) think that she should follow her dream.

I say that as someone who dicked around for years being miserable in a ‘good’ job because my ‘dream’ sector was so hard to get into and so badly paid that I didn’t see the point. I eventually went back to uni and retrained and got my dream job and I wish I could go back and tell my younger self to go for it and stop wasting time.

(Although all the experience I got from my boring old job definitely helped me to get this one, so I know it’s not that simple but still... I really didn’t have to be that miserable for that long!)

She is taking a very mature approach. She knows what interests her and is finding something that relates and offers good jopb prospects. What's wrong with that?

As someone who hires lab technicians in the biological sciences, the best thing she could do IMO is to pick a degree with a placement year.
She could also ask if she can do some work experience or shadowing in a biomedical lab so she really understands what is involved.
I worked in NHS genetics for a while and it was pretty routine, I'm now in R&D for a biotech which is much more interesting.

Eldest child looked at the UCAS book got bored whilst still looking at the A`s in the alphabet. Started to study a BA found the essays too long so switched to a BSc. He flitted around for a decade in the UK and abroad came back and started his own business.

Middle child wanted to do a particular degree then found there were no jobs at the end of it thanks to a secretary at the University who told us frankly what the odds were, so he switched did a different degree in Ocean Sciences and a Masters he has worked abroad since.

The third one is doing A levels thought about engineering but switched to something that is taking him down the construction road.

They all made up their own minds what they wanted to do.

I do think that employability is incredibly important. After all, she's going to be borrowing tens of thousands of pounds, she needs some return on her investment, so to speak.

I'd caution her with biomedical science though. I worked in NHS path labs for ten years (I finally escaped last year, hooray!) and there are far more graduates coming out than there are jobs. If they're lucky they might get a job as a lab assistant, not a biomedical scientist. Either way, the pay is not very good.

And then for going into industry - well, tbh, most universities that do biomedical science are not great, so employers often go for the more pure science degrees from better universities.

Also some graduate recruiters are just looking for a good degree in any subject from a good place in all kinds of high paid careers like accountancy, law, the advertising industry etc. (I am not an expert on biomed but I have seen a lot of people do it just because they cannot get into medicine and an awful lot of graduates in it. It would be better to do a degree in a full science traditional subject like physics if they love science and then you might have a few more options open after to go into a career which just requires a very good degree from a good university perhaps?)

I'll go against the grain: I'd take the subject she enjoys. There may not be direct correlation between that and career, but why spend money and time to move into an area you don't really enjoy or care about? Yes you can have a job on graduating, but is it a job you want?

I'm an arts grad, that works on the arts sector. For me this was the right decision: I prioritise value/ mission over financial recompense. I run a small business and don't make loads of money, but my quality of life is high. I am also totally rubbish at doing things I don't like/care about (I need some kind of meaning to it) so going for employability led decisions would have been a bad idea. I got a job on graduating because I was fairly single minded about it. I think it depends on your daughters personality as much as anything - if she's driven and values 'mission', And can tolerate uncertainty then she'd probably find a way of working in the field. If she values security, is motivated by financial success (not a bad thing) then I would pick the employability option.

My sister did a transferable, sensible degree (languages) when she should have done arts frankly. She had a fairly miserable time in parts. She ended up retraining in a different field from her degree, that she found through volunteering work. She absolutely loves her job but really did not need to slog through a 'sensible' degree from a 'good' university to do it. Any degree would have sufficed for her to retrain.