[Osem]

Our eldest is doing his GCSEs and thinking about the future. Once upon a time I'd have encouraged him to go to uni without a second thought but not now. My advice to him will be work hard, get the best results you can and then get out there in the real world before you make any decisions on what to do about further or higher education.

It's ironic that at the same time the degree has become a somewhat devalued currency here, the cost of taking one has escalated and seems to be heading north. Sadly, the market is flooded with debt ridden graduates doing all sorts of relatively menial jobs and with precious little chance of getting a decent one anytime soon it seems. In the push from above to increase the numbers going into higher education, not too much thought appears to have been given to what the resulting stream of graduates are actually going to do with their qualifications and whether they'll be of any real use in building their careers. The fact that we're still being told we need graduates from overseas to fill the gaps left by our own crop of talent rather indicates a lack of strategic planning somewhere along the line.