This isn’t my title but is the title of a BBC TV programme shown last week (Who gets the best jobs?), which is now on iPlayer until 16th Feb and is well worth watching if you have children, whether they are at university, going to university one day, or are one of the lucky ones that has just got a job……actually if you are thinking of having children if may put you off!!
Meanwhile we have the controversial debate of university fees and how universities choose their candidates? Surely they choose the children who, in their opinion, and their opinion should be the most informed, who will be able to deal with the course, deal with university life, and in the case of Oxbridge are the most gifted. If the government insists on criteria and quotas for the universities admissions boards then surely they are trying to control the universities at the most important stage i.e. dictating who they should have at their university and since it is the university’s responsibility to teach these students and prepare them for the job market then I think they should be allowed to choose the students. Presumably David Cameron got to choose his cabinet and, in the future, the candidates to stand for election to be an M.P and in every case he chooses the ones that he thinks will be most able to do the job. Many may think he chose the wrong people but he is PM so he gets to choose.
I am all for giving everyone an even playing field and in this programme it shows that universities do take into account the school the student comes from and any difficulties in their background that may have a diverse effect on their A level results plus the standard of teaching at their school.
My concern, as with any Mum, is for my children……do my daughters at university realise how tough it is to even get a job, let alone the best job? In my attempt to give them an idyllic childhood (or as near as possible!!) I have shielded them, over the years, from some realities and maybe they think jobs and money grow on trees. How do I get them to have that hunger to achieve? This programme tells you how employers are only interested in the very best graduates i.e. 2.1′s and 1st’s (probably only 1st’s in reality). Youngest son is taking GCSE’s and next week we have the usual talk from his school about how important his A level choices are and which universities will be interested in taking him…….he is diligent and knows that, because he goes to private school, he may be penalised (if Nick Clegg has his way) and even if he achieves the highest grades he may struggle to win a university place, especially to his first choice.
Plus after 4 children, privately educated, we were looking forward to our retirement but with these new fees I will have to keep sending the Old Man out to earn us a few more £’s!!
Finally it appears, according to more experts, that we may be entering the final dip of the recession, harsher than the first one in 2009. Over 34,000 houses were re-possessed last year. So how do you motivate these students to achieve their best when they are probably going to be trying to get a job in the most difficult of times with thousands of students applying for each job.
I entered my working life in the 80′s when jobs were easy to come by, mortgages were easy to attain and life was pretty good – probably the decade that sent us into this downward spiral.
Apparently this country is a less equal society than any day since World War One and so I am going to make my children watch the programme and hope it instils in them a sense of purpose and ambition which I clearly have failed to do.
P.S. Any advice gratefully accepted!