In The 21st Century, Is A Degree Really Necessary? Fitting Your Learning In With Your Career Is A Wiser Choice

Our industrial past has long gone and we are now a knowledge-based economy. Machines continue to replace the manual worker and it has never been more lucrative nor more necessary to make use of ones brain.

You obviously need a degree more than ever then? Don't you?

For some professions, such as Law, Medicine or Architecture, the degree is an integral part of the job training. But for most however, training is largely on the job or can be acquired via an internship or an apprenticeship. And with the jobs market looking sluggish in the medium-term, high-calibre people may be advised to steal a march by entering the jobs market now, and accumulating money and contacts, before perhaps returning to college when they have found a course that will genuinely help their career.

The one element often cited by universities to encourage young people into their institutions instead of the workplace is that the ability to gain a degree is in itself seen as a sign of intelligence. This however ought to be highly arguable at the current time, when the acquisition of this frequently useless bauble comes with a huge and worrisome debt attached.

In any case the modern worker has multiple avenues through which he or she can achieve:
• if you know what you want to do as soon as you leave school, then you can apply for an apprenticeship;
• or you can study a general online business course such as an HND in Business while working at your first job;
• or you can hang around at University for 3 years and leave with a massive debt and no real professional nous;
• or you can try and get into (extremely competitive) Medical School, thereby guaranteeing future success.

The problem is that young people nowadays are being pushed into making important life choices earlier than ever. And a reckless move could see them paying for years to come.

However, these days the opportunities for studying whilst earning are huge. In most cases young people can protect themselves from an enormous hole in their finances by choosing to study through distance learning courses, flexibly and at a pace that suits them - and at the same time as working at a job that pays their bills. They can get experience of the workplace while studying for the professional qualifications they need to get ahead, and without the prospect of unnecessary debt.

A much brighter prospect for many of today's youngsters, and an opportunity to show potential employers what they're really made of.