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True or False: Degrees are becoming worthless

Poll

Employers no longer care about degrees and they are becoming worthless

Redea78

True or False: Employers don't care about degrees anymore and they are becoming worthless

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Reply 1

Moments

False, If anything they're more required to get even the most basic jobs now.

Reply 2

RedGiant

Probably, pretty much everything taught in a degree can be learnt using the internet for free. Maybe mass lectures were the most efficient way of learning 100 years ago, but it’s not anymore.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 3

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

Original post by Redea78

True or False: Employers don't care about degrees anymore and they are becoming worthless

Some degrees don't add any value to career prospects and don't 'pay back' on the debt. In other words, the salary premium you get for having a degree is not greater than the salary deductions you get to pay off the debt.

Some employers do care about degrees.

Reply 4

Ðeggs

I would say it depends where they’re from. If you go to a non-prestigious « meh » university and get a degree on marketing or event planning or something, that’s rather one dimensional and the opportunities don’t lead upwards very much. If you want to work in a factory then you won’t need a degree. But say if you are a chemical engineer working for BP on developing oil extraction mechanisms, then you’d definitely need a Bsc/BEng and a MEng at the every minimum.

Reply 5

username4832702

Hey, I'm Mia 👋

My answer: False

Degrees are not becoming worthless as you still need certain degrees to go into specific areas (medicine, finance etc).

If anything it IS becoming much more difficult to find jobs as he number of people taking degrees is increasing slowly over the years.

Some people take very basic degrees and don't know what to do afterwards which may be a factor too.

Wish you all the best :smile:

Reply 6

username4626084

World becoming worthless

Reply 7

MediocreSince01

Mickey mouse degrees are worthless. We should stop encouraging everybody to go to university imo, because there are lots of degrees out there that'll be hard to find a job with.

Not entirely...

Three points:
1. Degrees are used as a filtering criteria. Originally getting a degree itself was hard and so a good filter. Now getting a degree isn’t hard but getting one from a top university is. So a degree from a reputable university is useful but otherwise no.

2. Reputable universities are sufficiently academic. You go to university to learn to think. Of course someone may say that you can do online courses blah2 but it’s really difficult to get a group of people together to explore, exchange ideas, do projects together, etc. It’s also a time to explore and try new things, which can be difficult if you go straight into the workforce.

3. The problem arises when someone is not academic. In this case they shouldn’t be doing a degree at all, but rather start work or do some professional qualification that will enable them to find a job. E.g for my subject a degree from a top university has a variety of modules. A degree from a lower ranked university contains mostly the same content as the professional exams. It’s not to say that the former is harder. But university exam questions are tricky and require true understanding and original thought. Professional exams have more content but more structured. If you just want to get a job university wastes your time.

4.At the end of the day uni is academic and should be seen as such- not something everyone can have. If you are not it’s ok. I have equal respect for both a plumber and a professor.

5. Another perspective as mentioned is that uni gives you time to explore if you don’t know what you want to do...

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 10

Mac_101

With the current state of humanity I would say a dregee is worth more and more as it puts you above the majority of the population

Reply 11

Blue_Cow

Original post by Redea78

True or False: Employers don't care about degrees anymore and they are becoming worthless

There are better routes these days, but that doesn't make a degree worthless. Employers just don't care WHAT you're studying (for a lot of jobs).

Example alternatives include degree apprenticeships in engineering with TfL, software engineering degree apprenticeships with Amazon paying £30k p/a, etc etc.

A degree alone isn't impressive these days - it's easier than ever to get into university thanks to marketisation and the spawning of new universities left right and centre.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 12

CityofMud

I would still consider those degrees, just a different pathway because you work and the company pays for your degree...? I presumed that the OP meant not doing any sort of degree at all

Reply 13

Smack

Volunteer Team

Original post by RedGiant

Probably, pretty much everything taught in a degree can be learnt using the internet for free. Maybe mass lectures were the most efficient way of learning 100 years ago, but it’s not anymore.

I suspect very few people utilise much of the knowledge gained during their degree after graduating, so the value of a degree likely very rarely lies in the actual material covered.

Reply 14

CityofMud

Original post by Smack

I suspect very few people utilise much of the knowledge gained during their degree after graduating, so the value of a degree likely very rarely lies in the actual material covered.

From a personal development point of view doing a degree allows you to try new things. The issue is that plenty of people go to university and remain in their comfort zone. I’ve known people who did ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees but did lots of side projects/ joined societies etc who walked into a job after graduating. Academically their degree alone may have been less useful compared to a person from an RG- but it’s the use they made of available resources and drive that made them stand out rather than the ‘degree’ of you get what I mean.