to blame Tony Blair for the lack of skilled workforce?

[dunkaccino]

In the 1980's only 15% of school leavers went into higher education leaving a good lot of people to become tradesmen/HGV drivers/butchers etc. Tony Blair decided in 1999 that 50% going to University was a great aim, which was finally achieved in 2019.

Now we have a lack of everyone useful - electricians, carpenters, fitters, engineers, butchers, drivers - coupled with a multitude of unskilled mickey mouse degree graduates who are of no practical use to anyone.

Covid & brexit have undeniably both played a part, but AIBU to think that Blairs idea was basically a bit shit and has left us lacking in the skilled workforce needed to run the country?

@ILoveShula - please do me the favour and find how many of BJ's kids went to become apprentices at some trade. Plumbers, HGV drivers, shop assistants at Tesco.
Thank you in advance.

@ILoveShula, yep, not Eton. One of his children got a degree studying the enormously useful Latin and Comparative Literature at University of St. Andrews. The one where all modest lowly commoners go.
So please, stop this. I can't believe you lot. UK just got dumbed down in the last two decades or something, you really believe all the Tory crap and become the second virtue after the stiff upper lip. You lot are really swallowing their propaganda aimed at the end of socially orientated society, with charity for the "deserving poor" only. Back to the Victorian times, eh? Ridiculous.

Any degree is valuable.
I loathe this attitude about 'useless' degrees just because they're not obviously vocational.

i know mine isn't. business related, now i'm retraining to have an actual skill.
i only went to uni because my parents also had very snobby attitude towards any trade.

@EerieSilence, does anyone know how many children he has?

@nodogz, eton is one school. Quite a few politicians went there - Cameron, Johnson, Rees-Mogg, Kwasi Kwarteng.
It isn't a generic word for all public schools.

I doubt that any old etonians end uo in trades. Unless you count Johnnie Boden as being in a trade, or Hugh Fearlessly-Eatsitall who worked at River Cafe.

Henry Wales as he was went into the army as did his big brother

etc

@ILoveShula, please stop being ridiculous.
Instead, try asking the Tory leaders how many of their children will go and do a trade. How many will not use their privilege of being elite to get some degrees which are being laughed at in this post and will get positions based solely on their family status and name.
You either believe that bollocks about too many young people going for ridiculous degrees, thus depriving society of the so much need working class or you pretend to do so. Either way is awful.

@SweetMaryHell

I’m a Tory supporter and can’t stand War Obsessed Blurgh but even I think everyone should have the opportunity to go to university if that’s what they want to do

This ^

@ILoveShula That's kind of the WHOLE point. Why does one school pump out PMs and no sparkys?

Breeding? Intelligence? Connections? Money? You see where I'm going? The logical conclusion to this sequence is very unpleasant.

I've had the privilege/misfortune to work alongside top level business and gov in this country. It was thrilling for about 3 minutes and then terrifying as the scales fell from my eyes. It's overrun with mediocre twats who believe their own hype. We fucking need diversity everywhere. EVERYWHERE.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

It was That her that started the shift to the service economy and destroyed all the manufacturing jobs. The kind of jobs that require apprenticeships. Blame her not Blair,

He was trying to improve the education of i know nationals.

That’s incorrect- Thatcher actually started apprenticeships.

You either believe that bollocks about too many young people going for ridiculous degrees, thus depriving society of the so much need working class or you pretend to do so.

Because regardless of what degrees the tory elite kids will do, their high end careers are guaranteed. Not like they will need to actually look for a job.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

It was That her that started the shift to the service economy and destroyed all the manufacturing jobs. The kind of jobs that require apprenticeships. Blame her not Blair,

He was trying to improve the education of i know nationals.

I agree it was Thatcher that started it. She shut down many traditional industries too that local people worked in.

I remember at the time of Blair there was a lot of talk about how other countries (eg Asia) have a far higher number of graduates that we do, and that Brits can't compete on the world scale without them. Seemed fair enough at the time. But the lack of trades wasn't down to him.

@Dobermansdinner - the difference between Thatcher (and I'm not a fan of hers at all) and today's Tories is that she was actually very much a traditional conservative middle-class while the Tories nowadays are overrun with dumb and spoilt aristo-brats who soaked up the belief that they are better than the mob they rule over with their formula bottles, obligingly served by their posh nannies. They don't care about who will starve, they give the nation games (and sycophantic kowtowing to the Royal family and elites as the righteous rules) and bread from time to time while firmly establishing a society where everybody knows their place.
In their minds, they deserve what they have because of what they are, their names and families, while Thatcher was about own accomplishments and traditional conservative values.

Mickey Mouse degrees are ones that do not lead to a job. They might be in subjects like Media Studies, Communication, Philosophy ...

Such a predictable list......sigh

Media studies is an excellent degree for those wanting a career in the media sector. It always get trotted out as a Mickey Mouse degree but there are many, many media degree which have excellent graduate employment figures.

As for communication and philosophy, again these can have excellent outcomes as the skills developed on these programmes are highly sought after..80 % of graduate jobs don't specify a particular degree subject.

I wouldn't slag particular degrees, but there are subjects for which there is very little marketability (history), or the market is way too competititve (arts).

History is an excellent degree choice. History courses are specifically targeted by the top graduate employers because of the skills history students develop.
They tend to make excellent accountants as the top 4 accountancy firms look at history graduates for their graduate schemes.

I'd probably not recruit someone with a Media Studies degree because I'd wonder why someone had chosen to study a degree with a poor reputation

So you'd let your assumptions and biases influence your recruitment practices instead of actually spending time to understand what the degree entails? I really hope you aren't in charge of recruitment anywhere.

History is an excellent degree choice. History courses are specifically targeted by the top graduate employers because of the skills history students develop.

Open University told me that at best I could requalify as a teacher or become a tour guide, because all those exciting, high end opportunities are pretty rare in practice.

@CatsArePeople

History is an excellent degree choice. History courses are specifically targeted by the top graduate employers because of the skills history students develop.

Open University told me that at best I could requalify as a teacher or become a tour guide, because all those exciting, high end opportunities are pretty rare in practice.

Well that was terrible advice.

I study the graduate labour market for a living so I can confidently say that history graduates are very employable.

@EerieSilence, I wasn't being ridiculous.

Eton is one school. The fees are something like 48.5K per year.
Some of the scholarship boys may be from a working class background.
They will have reached a certain academic standard.

I have no idea of what the children of the leaders do. I think that the PM's eldest is a fashion journalist.

I do not blame anyone in wanting the best possible education for their children

I study the graduate labour market for a living so I can confidently say that history graduates are very employable.

Maybe not the OU ones?

Dobermansanddinner, it’s not incorrect.

I live in the North. She destroyed all the northern cities main manufacturing bases. She closed the mines, because she wanted a service economy, it’s absolutely true.

@CatsArePeople

I study the graduate labour market for a living so I can confidently say that history graduates are very employable.

Maybe not the OU ones?

There is no reason why an OU graduate can't be employable across a range of settings. They may need to be more proactive though as at other universities there are lots of on campus employability activities.

@ILoveShula everybody deserves an education they strive for. And that's exactly my point.

I am not currently in charge of recruiting, but when I have been, I have looked for aptitude. The work does not need a degree, but candidates usually are graduates. If I had two candidates and one had a degree from Oxbridge and the other had a relevant HND from a former poly, it could well be that the person with the HND might be the better person for the job. I often work with people who were educated privately or who went to Oxbridge.

I highly doubt that a Media Studies degree will get you a job in the media. Charlie Brooker has one but I can't think of anyone else.

Many industries have unpaid interns, but that is a separate issue.

@SpinsForGin, Media studies is an excellent degree for those wanting a career in the media sector. It always get trotted out as a Mickey Mouse degree but there are many, many media degree which have excellent graduate employment figures.

As for communication and philosophy, again these can have excellent outcomes as the skills developed on these programmes are highly sought after..80 % of graduate jobs don't specify a particular degree subject.

Can you back this up?

@MerryChristmasToYou - I have seen many graduates with media degrees being very successful in major corps in positions related to PR, brand image and awareness etc.

I highly doubt that a Media Studies degree will get you a job in the media. Charlie Brooker has one but I can't think of anyone else

What are you basing this statement on?

The data for 19/20 shows that 75% of media studies graduates were employed 15 months after graduating with jobs in the arts/media being the most common followed by PR/marketing . Retail and hospitality was third on the list but that's not unique to media studies. 10% went on to further study and 6% were unemployed at the time the survey was conducted.