Is a degree still useful in the longer term?

[cleverhatdisguise]

I often hear the reasonable argument that it's not worth a young person going into debt for a degree these days, especially if they don’t have a clear direction or a love for academic study. Why spend four years and thousands of dollars on something that might not lead directly to a job? Better to get 4 years head start on their career.

But in my own life (I'm late 40s), I’ve found that even my fairly unimpressive degree came in handy a few times. It allowed me to apply for promotions, pursue further qualifications, helped with visa applications when moving countries, and gave me the chance to do a master’s degree in a subject I’m passionate about (and needed for my current career).

So my question is, even if a degree isn’t obviously “useful” at the time, can it still open doors later in life? Is it worth considering the long-term value, not just the immediate job prospects?

For context, I'm asking because I have a 17 yr old who dislikes school and study, and has no idea what he wants to do next. It's hard to know what's best.

Well, if he dislikes study, then I suspect it's not for him.

It is difficult to know if degrees completed in the next 5 years, will be useful in 20. 30. 40 years time. All we can 'know' if if people established in their careers or coming to the end of their careers have statistically benefitted from having degrees.

But 'generalisations' are just that. If you have a young person who is reluctant to study (and that's not a criticism - it is very common in 17 year olds) then it would certainly seem like a good idea to try and get a training in a trade, or even to get a job and then revisit options in a couple of years time.

People change a lot between 17 and 25, there is plenty of time to go to University in the future if that is what thy choose to do, having tried something else.

I have a degree and over the years (many years!) have applied for a considerable number of jobs that required or requested a degree. Teaching, PR, journalism in some cases, NHS comms... So yes, my degree has certainly been useful. Tho I persuaded a degree-less friend to apply where it said "or equivalent experience" which they certainly had and they got the job.

But tbh if your 17yo dislikes study, I honestly don’t think a degree is a good idea for them. My DD took a soft easy non-serious degree (tongue in my cheek here but MN doesn’t rate this subject) and for various reasons I was very aware of the workload and the amount of reading and research and writing she was having to do – it was at a very high level and she worked really hard. She loved her subject and loved studying it.

ETA: meant to say that your DC might benefit from getting a job or apprenticeship and seeing what the world of work is like. They may never look back or they may decide that further study is a good idea after all, when they are 20. Or whenever.

Depends on his career path , if he wants to say become an accountant an apprenticeship or junior starting position with supported studies could mean he is further towards qualification and no debt vs a graduate

@CarpetKnees : It is difficult to know if degrees completed in the next 5 years, will be useful in 20. 30. 40 years time. All we can 'know' if if people established in their careers or coming to the end of their careers have statistically benefitted from having degrees.

This is a very fair point. We just can't know.

I suppose all we can do is what seems like the best fit for now.

@CoastalCalm funnily enough, finance or accountancy is one of his possible directions. It had not occurred to me that he could begin in that career direction without a degree.

I feel so unqualified to advise him. And he's almost an adult and very willing to make his own decisions - but he still talks things through with me, and I have to say, I don't really know! He's a hard worker - has a part time job and on balance prefers working to school. Perhaps that's his answer. And university will still be there in a few years time if it's right for him then.

In international business, a degree matters because it’s often required for senior-level roles by multinationals. There’s a feeling that a senior leader needs that level of education, and often a policy to match.

I recently found myself explaining to an American HR manager that my 1990s bachelors from a Russell Group would be equivalent to a US masters’ degree (non-technical field) because it represents a qualification held by less than 10 percent of people at that time - so they didn’t need to eliminate me as a candidate for internal promotion because I don’t have a masters!!
Happily all ok but it would have been a barrier if I only had “high school education” as they call it.

If is vocational and will help you get into the career you want then yes I think it is worth it. My husband wants to be a counsellor, now anybody can set themselves up and call themselves a counsellor but to get a trainee position in counselling they expect some sort of relevant qualification.

I think a degree might be one of those things you don’t really realise you needed when you have one.

One of my friends left uni in the middle of the dot com boom because you could get well paid jobs so easily in computing. When he went looking for a different job a few years later, with some great experience under his belt, he found a lot of options were closed to him because of company policies that those jobs needed a degree. So he went back and finished his computing course.

Edited to add: the friends who had finished their degrees usually had a first reaction to ask “why bother”, but that’s because they didn’t realise how often they’d had to tick a box saying “has a degree”.