Did you need a degree to do your job?

[Mushroom]

With all the latest thoughts that most jobs now require a degree of some sort for the applicant to be successful, did you need one to jet a job? Did you get one later in life? Or, did you do okay without one?

I keep reading how the Plod of today is seeking graduates only and it is bound to fail as it won't attract 'common sense' people, ex-servicemen and women and because it hasn't got a stipulation, such as being inline with the job itself, i.e Law, Criminology. I wouldn't like to think that the person by your side at kicking out time when the going gets rough is the local equivalent of Billy Elliot doing a bit of a sample from his/her degree in expressive dancing.

We now have an overload of degree holders who struggle to find the right niche in the jobs market to use their qualification as it was intended.

I did my 5 'O' levels and that was it. I am the only one in our family unit that never did a degree and never needed to.

My wife did hers whilst within her job, the kids went to Uni. The degrees they all did have been a requirement for the jobs they do.

Did you need a degree to do your job?

Thoughts?

 

[Tenpin]

When I left school I managed to get an apprenticeship to become a computer engineer.

No degree required, just good old on the job training and some college time.
All paid for by the employer Sperry Univac.

 

[enoch]

Left at 14+ started apprenticeships commercial motor body builder. No college all training on the job. Hgv class 1 never used. All welding metal. alloy, gas. Painting. Hydrolic, and joinery. As you can see it was multiple trades

 

[Saoirse]

Pah!
That's nothing!
Left school at 3 started working down down pits
It was my job to go down and see if it was safe for the canary
Worked till I was 107 died twice in 3 world wars etc etc

 

[Tenpin]

Pah!
That's nothing!
Left school at 3 started working down down pits
It was my job to go down and see if it was safe for the canary
Worked till I was 107 died twice in 3 world wars etc etc

Answers a few questions we all have about you......lol

 

[IbrahimAbi]

I think he secretly aspired to the canary's job.He was determined to climb up the ladder

 

[enoch]

I think he secretly aspired to the canary's job.

We they said he was small enough, and never shut up like a canary.

 

[SLEEPY]

Rumour has it he is hen pecked !

 

[Jaycey]

Got mine in aerospace engineering with BAC.

Never spent a single day as an engineer but it gave me credibility and access to many major engineering clients.

Learning is never wasted.

 

[35pluschips]

With all the latest thoughts that most jobs now require a degree of some sort for the applicant to be successful, did you need one to jet a job? Did you get one later in life? Or, did you do okay without one?

I keep reading how the Plod of today is seeking graduates only and it is bound to fail as it won't attract 'common sense' people, ex-servicemen and women and because it hasn't got a stipulation, such as being inline with the job itself, i.e Law, Criminology. I wouldn't like to think that the person by your side at kicking out time when the going gets rough is the local equivalent of Billy Elliot doing a bit of a sample from his/her degree in expressive dancing.

We now have an overload of degree holders who struggle to find the right niche in the jobs market to use their qualification as it was intended.

I did my 5 'O' levels and that was it. I am the only one in our family unit that never did a degree and never needed to.

My wife did hers whilst within her job, the kids went to Uni. The degrees they all did have been a requirement for the jobs they do.

Did you need a degree to do your job?

Thoughts?

Our daughter gained her degree a few months back, she's 36 years of age, a wife and a Mother of two. She started it years ago when at BT but during it, at the age of 21, she was offered over 20k redundancy & like any 21 year old, she jumped on it.
Shes been at Aldi now for 6 years as a buyers assistant, senior management required a degree, so she paid 4k (with a little help from us) to get/complete that degree, its business related.
Yesterday was her first day as a full blown manager there.

Theres a twist.
Whilst doing her studies, Aldi dropped the stipulation of the degree being needed. She never told ANYONE at work that she was doing a degree, only after completion and the result in hand did she spill the Aldi beans.
She was offered numerous jobs by various teams & her wages (which were good already) jumped up by over a third.
Some of her co-workers were shocked that she achieved her degree whilst working and bringing up two kids.
Its called determination & it runs rife in our family.......

 

[juco]

Interesting question, My opinion certainly in days gone by it was work ethics and determination that won the day.

I was hopeless at school, exams were difficult as I have a very poor memory retention, despite being interested and enjoying subjects like geology, astronomy, and science subjects so a degree was out for me. The highlight of my career was national sales manager and I retired at 56, so done ok.

My brother got a 1st class honours in mathematical physics at Edin Uni (at the time the youngest ever) and worked for a couple of years as a nuclear physicist, went abroad and never used his degree for any further employment.

My wife left school with zilch but later spent 4 years on financial exams (while working for the company) and an unfinished degree on child psychology (open uni) she had a good, quite lucrative career in finance, retired last year.

Youngest son got a degree in media, worked for NHS for a couple of years, got pissed off left the country and started his own business ( not related to his degree ) which is doing well and pre Covid travelled to many counties on business.

Middle son got good certification on leaving school but no degree had at least 30 jobs by the time he was 25 then started his own company and doing well despite Covid restrictions.

Eldest no degree and an officer in the RAF based in Las Vegas, comes out in 18 months aged 45 with a pension.

As a side note my sister is married to a MSP who has no qualifications, is fekcin useless, would suck up to ........ and gets a well paid salary + expenses + £250k office running expenses and just retired on an enhanced pension.... Dont get me started on this one.

 

[35pluschips]

Someone said to me (not my daughter) that a degree is to show that you can adapt to a subject and see it through.
My daughter was involved in interviewing for positions at Aldi, mostly internal jobs. She wasn't surprised that a lot of people had degrees, what did surprise her was the subjects some had got that degree in. Completely unrelated to business or retail.

 

[Hilsjw]

I'm a great believer in apprenticeships, not the ones where the employer takes advantage and just uses the youngster for tea making without taking the time to really teach. We are desperate for all sorts of skilled workmen/women and they can earn very good money indeed, if they are good. Some of the so called degrees are a touch spurious e.g. hairdressing, beauty therapists both of which can be learnt successfully in saloons.

 

[yalimart]

In answer to the question, no, I was in the top class at school finding everything relatively easy, we had no geography teacher from year 1 as he had a breakdown and my history teacher was a legacy fast tracked ex army officer who was as mad as a box of frogs, we were studying the O level syllabus but the year before our exams we were chosen as a trial school for 16+ I got 5 passes but no idea what they were as I was offered and started out as an apprentice engineer in 1976, the course involved block release at Salford Tec which was not the easiest place to get to from South Manchester, we did most engineering machine tool jobs, fitting, plumbing and electrical. I wanted to be an electrician but my employer wanted me to be a fitter so there was a parting of ways, I got a job with an electrical company but had to pay for my own city and guilds and do it at night school.
in the early 80s when jobs were thin on the ground I took a semi skilled job for a couple of years in a local factory that paid good money and enabled me to get the housing ladder, mum and dad had changed the locks by this time.
I went working at BT as an Engineer and started to do my OU degree, I was quickly recognised for my enthusiasm and potential and was offered higher grade acting roles in a few different departments, I was into my 2nd year and I was chatting to an old timer who was my bosses boss, he said forget the degree for now and get an ONC, that would be the key to the door here, I took some of his advice and in 2 years I had completed the Btec ONC in Electrical and Electronic engineering just as some vacancies were announced for senior engineering grade rolls, I applied and passed and was promoted, I effectively bypassed a couple of grades. The bit of his advice I didn't take heed of was to forget the degree course, I tried to do the 2 in parallel, with the ONC being the priority, an OU degree course gets exponentially more difficult as you go on, credit to Chip's daughter for completing hers, you have to make serious sacrifices to succeed, I had taken on far to much as on top of the education and full time job I also had my own small business, I failed year 3 by the narrowest of margins. I could have picked it up again quite easily but chose not to. I had got to where I wanted to be at that moment in time later moving into lower management.
I eventually left and went full time into my own business retiring at 59.
I learned an awful lot on the degree course that I couldn't have learned on the tools, there is a place for degree courses but as I said not in my case, however I do know the answer to "what is the square root of -1 ?" not many people will know that.

 

[kemerkid]

In answer to the question, no, I was in the top class at school finding everything relatively easy, we had no geography teacher from year 1 as he had a breakdown and my history teacher was a legacy fast tracked ex army officer who was as mad as a box of frogs, we were studying the O level syllabus but the year before our exams we were chosen as a trial school for 16+ I got 5 passes but no idea what they were as I was offered and started out as an apprentice engineer in 1976, the course involved block release at Salford Tec which was not the easiest place to get to from South Manchester, we did most engineering machine tool jobs, fitting, plumbing and electrical. I wanted to be an electrician but my employer wanted me to be a fitter so there was a parting of ways, I got a job with an electrical company but had to pay for my own city and guilds and do it at night school.
in the early 80s when jobs were thin on the ground I took a semi skilled job for a couple of years in a local factory that paid good money and enabled me to get the housing ladder, mum and dad had changed the locks by this time.
I went working at BT as an Engineer and started to do my OU degree, I was quickly recognised for my enthusiasm and potential and was offered higher grade acting roles in a few different departments, I was into my 2nd year and I was chatting to an old timer who was my bosses boss, he said forget the degree for now and get an ONC, that would be the key to the door here, I took some of his advice and in 2 years I had completed the Btec ONC in Electrical and Electronic engineering just as some vacancies were announced for senior engineering grade rolls, I applied and passed and was promoted, I effectively bypassed a couple of grades. The bit of his advice I didn't take heed of was to forget the degree course, I tried to do the 2 in parallel, with the ONC being the priority, an OU degree course gets exponentially more difficult as you go on, credit to Chip's daughter for completing hers, you have to make serious sacrifices to succeed, I had taken on far to much as on top of the education and full time job I also had my own small business, I failed year 3 by the narrowest of margins. I could have picked it up again quite easily but chose not to. I had got to where I wanted to be at that moment in time later moving into lower management.
I eventually left and went full time into my own business retiring at 59.
I learned an awful lot on the degree course that I couldn't have learned on the tools, there is a place for degree courses but as I said not in my case, however I do know the answer to "what is the square root of -1 ?" not many people will know that.

 

[yalimart]

Sorry Pete,

you have lost me on that one.

 

[kemerkid]

All I needed was a degree of sobriety!

 

[kemerkid]

Sorry Pete,

you have lost me on that one.

I pressed the wrong knob

 

[kemerkid]

At times I think you need an Ology to get on with the new forum format.... or there is an age limit to eligibility!

 

[enoch]

Interesting question, My opinion certainly in days gone by it was work ethics and determination that won the day.

I was hopeless at school, exams were difficult as I have a very poor memory retention, despite being interested and enjoying subjects like geology, astronomy, and science subjects so a degree was out for me. The highlight of my career was national sales manager and I retired at 56, so done ok.

My brother got a 1st class honours in mathematical physics at Edin Uni (at the time the youngest ever) and worked for a couple of years as a nuclear physicist, went abroad and never used his degree for any further employment.

My wife left school with zilch but later spent 4 years on financial exams (while working for the company) and an unfinished degree on child psychology (open uni) she had a good, quite lucrative career in finance, retired last year.

Youngest son got a degree in media, worked for NHS for a couple of years, got pissed off left the country and started his own business ( not related to his degree ) which is doing well and pre Covid travelled to many counties on business.

Middle son got good certification on leaving school but no degree had at least 30 jobs by the time he was 25 then started his own company and doing well despite Covid restrictions.

Eldest no degree and an officer in the RAF based in Las Vegas, comes out in 18 months aged 45 with a pension.

As a side note my sister is married to a MSP who has no qualifications, is fekcin useless, would suck up to ........ and gets a well paid salary + expenses + £250k office running expenses and just retired on an enhanced pension.... Dont get me started on this one.

My mates son is in the RAF no degree working on fighter jet's, he was a carework before that said best job ever.