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Wednesday October 26th, 2016
We hope you are enjoying your October half term. Halloween will see the students return to school next week. Get your little pumpkins ready!
Many of those in year 13 wishing to apply to universities would have already started the application process and those applying to Oxbridge would have submitted their applications and started receiving offers from their chosen universities.
Before you even started your application, the most important question of all had to be answered: What course should I do?
Committing 3 or 4 years of your life to one field can seem daunting. Our advice is to go for something you love and enjoy, but will that degree get you the dream job you want? You might be in the majority of youth who are simply not sure what they would like to do for a profession.
Meanwhile, your grandma keeps asking that same question every time you go round for lunch ‘what job do you want to do when you are older?’ Let’s say you choose Geography, or Maths, something you really enjoy at school. Your grandma suggests: ‘Do you want to be a Geography/Maths teacher?’ (by the way there is nothing wrong with Geography or Maths teachers), but is that the only option possible with that degree? Should Theresa May and Prince William have been Geography teachers because they did Geography degree? Michael Palin himself has said that “geography students hold the key to the world’s problems”.
The reality is that in England and other European countries many jobs are open to people with degrees unrelated to the field of work. A good example is Hugh Laurie who read Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge before becoming an actor.
Of course there are some degrees that are essential and give the easiest route to the desired job. To be a doctor you need to study Medicine, to be a lawyer you need to study Law (well, another popular route is the 1 year Law conversion course that is now fairly common for graduates). To be an eye specialist you may want to study Optometry.
Do you want to be a banker? Well, the logical decision would surely be to study Finance, right? Not necessarily. Many bankers went to one of the Oxbridge institutions, graduated in History, Maths or Philosophy and had successful careers in banking. Degrees like History or Philosophy can also lead to the careers in central or local government, the legal profession, recruitment, human resources, marketing, journalism or training.
Another example could be the various strands of Engineering. Does that automatically mean you are going to be an engineer or even work in a company that deals with it? It is a very valued degree so many graduates end up working in finance or consulting.
For less academic students, an interesting and often overlooked course is the Real Estate and Property Management. This course is often chosen by the heirs of successful property investors and usually on their family’s recommendation. If your father has built a successful property empire, he is likely to recommend this course to you. Best universities for Land Management are Reading and Oxford Brookes. High academic achievements are not required to be accepted on this course and you definitely come out with a qualification that is concrete and in demand.
Cambridge also offers this course. For instance, Prince William did his post-graduate course at Cambridge in Agricultural Management. That particular course was specially designed for the Prince, but it is related to the Real Estate Management.
UK’s biggest property owner the Sixth Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor who passed away in August this year, left his empire, which makes most of its money from inherited land that dates back to 1677, in the hands of his son, 25 year old Hugh Grosvenor who graduated from University of Newcastle with a degree in Countryside Management.
If you enjoy more than one subject, it can be a good idea to do a joint degree. Whether you want to combine your degree with a foreign language, or with another subject, employers often like candidates who have knowledge in more than one field or speak a foreign language, thus have a broader spectrum of skills and potentially have a wider perspective.
What about the more obscure degrees? Let’s take something like History of Art for instance. Some will try and discourage you by claiming that it is a ‘soft subject’ and will wish you luck in finding a job, but is that really the case? Well, some stats claim that if you do go into the arts and culture industry, on average it pays nearly five per cent more than the UK median salary.
But, also arts isn’t the only route with this degree! Many of the skills you will learn at university are transferable and many graduates end up working in industries like PR, media, TV, advertising or even fashion.
Whatever you study, you have got to try and get into the top university, to love the subject and to be good at it. Then everything will fall into place. You will find yourself enjoying your studies and your professional career for the rest of your life. And when you enjoy something, you get really good at it.
“ Regency Education helped all three of our boys get into a wonderful school where they now thrive. ”
“ REGENCY EDUCATION WAS ABLE TO HELP US WITH EVERY STEP OF THE SCHOOL APPLICATION PROCESS ENSURING THE EDUCATIONAL SUCCESS OF OUR CHILDREN. AN INVALUABLE SERVICE. ”
“ REGENCY EDUCATION WAS ABLE TO HELP US WITH EVERY STEP OF THE APPLICATION PROCESS ENSURING THE EDUCATIONAL SUCCESS OF OUR CHILDREN - AN INVALUABLE SERVICE. ”
