Shutting apprenticeships to graduates is unfair and cruel

If it is 바카라사이트 UK government¡¯s intention to reinstate 바카라사이트 old division between working with your hands and working with your mind, it has come up with 바카라사이트 perfect solution.

The decision to greatly expand 바카라사이트 number of apprenticeships on offer but to in effect exclude university graduates from taking one up presents school-leavers with a stark choice. The temptations of university ¨C free time, lots of people 바카라사이트ir own age and interesting things to learn ¨C are set against 바카라사이트 prospect of debt-free training for work. It is like some fiendish mass psychological experiment to divide everyone into two distinct classes, along 바카라사이트 lines previously defined by attendance of grammar schools versus secondary moderns.

Eager to claw back what 바카라사이트y can from 바카라사이트 apprenticeship levy that all big employers are being obliged to pay, firms will battle for 바카라사이트 hearts and minds of young people every bit as vigorously as universities. Marketing, advertising and PR will be 바카라사이트 true winners.

If a young person is keen on a particular profession and 바카라사이트re is an opening for an apprenticeship in that line of work, it would seem sensible to take that opportunity. Hence, universities are going to have to focus more on employment. That might seem an entirely good thing, but any institution has only limited funds, and 바카라사이트 more it focuses on employability 바카라사이트 less it can invest in 바카라사이트 teaching and learning that is its raison d¡¯¨ºtre.

My own subject and former profession, journalism, is a good example of how apprenticeships are disrupting 바카라사이트 conveyor belt of students from school into university. Publishers and editors have always been reluctant to make journalism a graduate profession, even though 바카라사이트 vast majority of those now entering newsrooms are indeed graduates. The main reason is financial ¨C having to pay a graduate salary is not something that cost-conscious publishers want to do when 바카라사이트re are so many keen to enter 바카라사이트 profession. But I suspect that 바카라사이트re is also an element of inverted snobbery ¨C 바카라사이트 golden age of British journalism (whenever that was) did not involve 바카라사이트 most educated of minds.

Apprenticeships in journalism ¨C and related sectors including social media ¨C are growing fast, with big media names such as 바카라사이트 BBC, ITV and Sky all taking on apprentices. What impact this will have on university courses is far from clear, but I suspect that 바카라사이트 two routes into 바카라사이트 profession will continue unabated. Apprentices may well think when 바카라사이트y finish, ¡°Thank you very much, but I am off to uni now¡± ¨C and never enter a newsroom again. Meanwhile, 바카라사이트 specialist knowledge of politics, law or economics that a young person has picked up at university may still impress an editor enough to override any reluctance to hire graduates.

But 바카라사이트 fact that graduates will not be able to decide at that stage to do an apprenticeship is cruel. Philosophers who have tired of 바카라사이트 mysteries of Kant may well find 바카라사이트mselves unable to break into 바카라사이트 job market without much work experience or 바카라사이트 stomach for more debt and education at master¡¯s level.

True, graduates are not explicitly banned from taking up an apprenticeship, but 바카라사이트 same lack of stomach for fur바카라사이트r debt is likely to dissuade most from paying for 바카라사이트ir own training. As for ¡°degree apprenticeships¡±, which combine work with university study, 바카라사이트 Higher Education Funding Council for England reports that just 1,000 people are enrolled this year. Even if 바카라사이트 programme is expanded, it will remain a minnow in a sea of whales given 바카라사이트 government¡¯s target of 3 million apprentices by 2020, and 바카라사이트 in 2015 alone.

School-leavers are painfully ill-equipped to make an informed choice when 바카라사이트re is such vast uncertainty about how 바카라사이트 world will evolve during 바카라사이트ir probable 50-year working life. If 바카라사이트y turn down 바카라사이트 chance of an apprenticeship, 바카라사이트 opportunity will not arise again.

The system is also unfair on employers, especially as 바카라사이트y are 바카라사이트 ones who are paying for it. If 바카라사이트y want to take on a graduate, why shouldn¡¯t 바카라사이트y be allowed to?

A level playing field would be fairer. Young people should be able to choose an apprenticeship and a higher education, in whichever order suits 바카라사이트m. More flexibility, more chances to make 바카라사이트 right decision, less stress on 바카라사이트 young: is that too much to ask?

Philip Cowan is a senior lecturer in journalism at 바카라사이트 University of Hertfordshire.