What is the use of a degree if there are no jobs for you

[kiwitt]

The recent riots in Europe and the Middle East, got me thinking.

Many students are completing or working on degrees and finding out that there is no work for them. The youth unemployment is very high in comparison to other workers.

 

[Luckymoose]

I'm getting my education for myself, and not for the job, I would rather be an educated prick than an uneducated laborer.

 

[Earthling]

Are you referring to any country/region/something in particular then, or was that not really implied by that first part of the OP? In countries like the US/Western Europe there are various valid concerns to discuss regarding higher education/degrees but not really on the same scale or in the same way as everywhere else. Mostly regarding accessibility and actual usefulness and costs of various degrees.

In the developed world I'd rather say there's a huge need for a more educated populace period, and all of the industry and economic possibilities for such a populace, rather than the "brain drain" some places still experience.

Another issue is that the population pyramids are really skewed for many developing nations (the Middle East is especially bad here and that's a geopolitical concern) compared to the developed world - there are far more younger people than older people and I would say it beats me how their lives are going to pan out and how that will go on a global scale, but we won't expect indefinite growth and expansion the same way it's been in the past to continue in the future.

Just the other day I had really grasped for the first time and pointed out in some thread here that I noticed there are like 120 million people aged 20-25 in China alone. That's insane sounding, though proportionally not even as bad as other nations, and China already has problems with social stratification and so on along with their general political/economic concerns, that'll continue to be one for them for a while I'd imagine.

 

[Tani Coyote]

Well, there certainly is satisfaction to be derived from hard work giving you the degree. You can say you're more educated than many.

In addition, when jobs do open up, you'll have a higher chance of a better wage!

 

[kiwitt]

I'm thinking that the with the economy going to pieces in many places ... they need to fix the economy so these students can be working.

I am more thinking in the developing world per se.

 

[Kraznaya]

Well if you chose to get an unemployable degree, that's your fault. YOU KNEW THE RISKS GOING IN

 

[kiwitt]

I don't think that is fair ... it takes three years or more which means they were selecting their degree in 2006-2007 when there were jobs

 

[Perfection]

I think part of this comes from the swiftness of the employer-employee relationship. You can't be hired, and work there for a year without contributing much. Everyone now is a contractor that needs to deliver results extremely quickly after hiring. That's not something that university programs provide.

Anyways, what's the use of a degree? Think of how much worse a position they'd be in without one!

 

[JollyRoger]

Well if you chose to get an unemployable degree, that's your fault. YOU KNEW THE RISKS GOING IN

Not necessarily. Most people think that geting a law degree is a path to riches and the job placement stats put out by the law schools will reinforce that. However, reality is must harsher than the general perception and misleading stats would indicate.

 

[GamezRule]

Also, ten years down the line, the top new fields will be different. The only one that really has lasted as a top employer is healthcare.

 

[kiwitt]

Anyways, what's the use of a degree? Think of how much worse a position they'd be in without one!

FYI: I do not have a degree.

When I was considering getting one in the early 90's after being in the air force and working, but when I learned that I would be learning about dbase II, when I was already using and supporting dbase III+/IV. Why should I get a degree based on old technology, so I decided to pursue my career with current technical training only.

And no degree did me no harm ... retired before I was 50.

 

[Truronian]

Also, ten years down the line, the top new fields will be different. The only one that really has lasted as a top employer is healthcare.

Education will always be around.

 

[GamezRule]

But being an educator requires constantly going back to school yourself.

 

[Verbose]

The recent riots in Europe and the Middle East, got me thinking.

Many students are completing or working on degrees and finding out that there is no work for them. The youth unemployment is very high in comparison to other workers.

Well, in Europe unemployment is always worse if you lack a degree.

There are differences in how unemployment is structured, what groups of educated people are struggling (what areas of qualification), numbers, and how the entry into the labour market works (is it delayed, or are entire groups just finding themselves falling off the table entirely). Even with a 10% unemployment rate, 90% will be, well "fine" as in kind of sustainable (lots of governments have agendas to raise the average employment rate generally), and usually society as well — provided employment and unemployment is at least somewhat evenly distributed.

 

[NYHunter]

"College is just white people paying other white people to read to them" - True Blood

 

[Mise]

The fact that youth and graduate unemployment is so high doesn't mean we should stop doing degrees... That's plainly the wrong conclusion to draw from those statistics. Rather, the government should enact policies that will reduce youth and graduate unemployment to more acceptable levels.

And even if there's nothing the government can do, a degree may not be worth something now, but will definitely be worth something in a year or two's time when the economy fully recovers. I'd imagine that in Germany a degree is worth rather a lot right now.

 

[Bill3000]

The point of going to college was never about getting job skills, doofus, it was about getting an education; the two are not the same. If you're whining about your educational interests not being applicable to practical job skills then you should have thought of that before you went to college in the first place.

 

[Japanrocks12]

If I wanted to get hired out of college (a possibility that I am seriously looking into, for a year), then I would be sure to get training to pick up some lab and computer skills so as to make my resume more attractive. The degree is the baseline, though. If you have it and nothing else, your chances are pretty slim, whereas if you don't have it, no matter how much vocational training you've undergone, they are astronomically low.

 

[Verbose]

Props to Kiwitt for posting an OP that seems to de facto equate Europe with the Middle East. Rolling them into one like that actually is a refreshing new take on things. And I'm not being sarcastic here either. There really is no reason why Europe and the ME should be different in this regard. At least it shouldn't automatically be taken for granted.

I do however tend to think they still are different is a number of ways. Beginning with how the vast majority of Europe are quite decent democracies, which virtually nothing of the ME is. And while Europe hasn't had stellar economic growth in decades, it has experienced growth, after starting from a rather high level of affluence, while the ME is still considerable less well off, and has had piss-poor economic growth for a long time.

The European problem to me seems more a matter of late entry into the workforce, after lots of time (overlong perhaps) spent in education - where people who didn't continue their education tend to be the ones ending up in permanent unemployment. Whereas too many countries in the ME rather seem to have a problem with groups of well educated people not being able to secure employment and a living on par with the comptencies.

 

[holy king]

I'm getting my education for myself, and not for the job, I would rather be an educated prick than an uneducated laborer.

well, you're going to end up an educated laborer that way. not the worst thing to be.