Though I have never seen it, I have been in love with Avenue Q for about a year. I don't know the story, but the soundtrack gets played on my iPod, ooooooh, about twice a week I'd say. The songs are very witty and well written. I have recently been struck by how relevant the opening number (see below) is to my life.
So I don't have a B.A in English. I have a B.A (Hons) in French and German Studies. A 2:1 from what is widely regarded as quite a good university (Warwick), which I feel is roughly equivalent. I feel like every single word in this song is true. "Four years of college and plenty of knowledge have earned me this useless degree." I don't think I could write more accurate lyrics. I have got a piece of paper telling me I am officially Quite Good at German and French. I have gained many "transferable skills" and have the added bonus of experience of living abroad. I graduated almost exactly a year ago:
It is becoming increasingly apparent that without further training or extra skills, a B.A is, more or less useless. Another song that I can relate to is this one. It would be humorous, if it weren't so depressingly apt.
As it stands, I am just one of thousands of unemployed graduates. Is a degree worth anything? It doesn't seem to be at the moment. I think this is particularly so for holders of a B.A rather than a BSc. Arts degrees seem to be more general, and less specifically applicable to a certain job. If you have a BSc in Computer Engineering, it kind of implies that you know what field of work you'd like to go into. Though come to think of it, that doesn't necessarily work because there are more and more graduates every year, and less and less graduate-level jobs. Are you seeing the problem here?
I like to think that my friends are a fairly educated bunch of people. In fact, all of them either have a degree or are very close to getting one. Look at these statistics (painstakingly compiled this afternoon):
T- Geography graduate. Learning Support Assistant in a secondary school (my old one, actually). Did not require a degree for the job he is doing.
J- French and German Studies graduate. Learning Support Assistant in a secondary school. Did not require a degree for the job he is doing.
R- Criminology graduate. Youth Worker. Did not require a degree to gain a place on his apprenticeship. Now doing very well and about to start a post-grad Youth Work course.
M- Music Technology graduate. Unemployed.
K- French and German Studies graduate. Holiday camp manager. Did not require a degree for the job she is doing.
R- Civil Engineering graduate. Customer Assistant in Matalan. Did not require a degree for the job he is doing.
N- French with International Studies graduate. PR representative. Did not require a degree for the job he is doing.
S- French with German Studies graduate. Recruitment Consultant. Did need a degree for the job.
C- German and Linguistics graduate. Qualified Primary Teacher. Unemployed.
R- French with German Studies graduate. Customer Assistant in Michel Perry (fancy Paris shoe shop). Did not require a degree for the job she is doing. Did need fluent French though.
And lastly, Me- German and French Studies graduate. Unemployed.
That's 10 people. One of them needed a degree to get her job. I should also add that the job required A DEGREE, rather than one in a specific subject.
It is worrying. More people than ever are going to university. More people than ever are having trouble finding a job at the appropriate level. I have no doubt that I will find a job before too long. What I doubt is that it will reflect my qualifications. And I am far from the only person in this situation. This would be a bad situation to be in, even without taking the massive debt incurred into consideration. So, I think it is fairly safe to say that there has never been a worse time to graduate, and that things are, by and large, looking pretty bleak.
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