The government continues to suggest - without much objection from most of the media who simply assume it must be true - that this country must do everything possible to increase the number of graduates. The theory is that this is an information society where an increasing number of people who want jobs need to have higher level skills and education.

The first skill which state welfare in Britain is failing to teach to as many as one in five children is the ability to read. Undaunted by this failure, the government likes to imagine that the wholesale increase in university places has been a 'good thing' and there should be much more of it.

The specific argument of the government is that this expansion of places is necessary on economic grounds (not cultural or to further individual well-being). It is this ground that is demonstrably absurd for a number of reasons described in The Welfare State We're In. Now comes further evidence. High numbers of those who go to university either do not want or cannot get jobs that reflect the level of education they have received. There is no apparent desperate shortage of graduates. There is no apparent need, therefore, to make more of them. Not on economic grounds, anyway.

One in three graduates ends up in a job that does not require a degree, researchers have found.

Art, design and humanities graduates and those from former polytechnics have the worst job prospects, while students of vocational courses, such as law, medicine and teacher training, are most likely to find degree-level jobs.

This is from the Telegraph a few days ago. And again:

In 1992, one in five male graduates was engaged in non-graduate work at the age of 25.

But by last year, the number had risen to more than one in three. Among women, the proportion rose from one in four to just under one in three. Among creative and arts graduates, almost six out of 10 ended up in jobs for which they were over-qualified, as did 30 per cent of English and humanities graduates.

Meanwhile, only one in 10 who did vocational courses took on non-graduate jobs, while the figure was one in five among those who did maths and sciences.

Researchers at Kent University found graduates of former polytechnics were three times more likely to end up in a job for which they were over-qualified compared to their Oxbridge counterparts.

The full article is here.

Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in Education

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