Can anyone help me understand university courses?

70% of graduate jobs in the UK are willing to accept people with a degree in any subject. The remaining 30% jobs are ones like dentistry, architecture, engineering and nursing, where you need a specific qualification for the job.

This means that most jobs are still open to you with a geography / history / IT degree. For instance, I did a politics degree and now I'm employed in a good graduate job in a completely different sector. Do bear in mind that there are a lot of degrees that sound a bit like they might be required to work in that sector, but actually you could go into that career with a degree in any subject e.g. journalism, accounting. events management, marketing.

You don't need a law degree to become a lawyer. So, if you did a history degree, you'd need to do a one year GDL, which then gets you to the same point as someone who did a law degree.

No problem Have you got any more questions?

It depends on the career area. Many jobs in areas that aren't related to history won't require any additional studying. To stick with the examples I used earlier, this would apply to marketing and events management, for instance.

Some career areas will require a bit of extra studying, e.g. journalism would require an NUJ qualification, and accounting would require an ACCA qualification (though sometimes it is possible to get these qualifications on the job). Similarly, teaching would require a PGCE / Teach First / Schools Direct, and being a solicitor / barrister requires a GDL followed by a :LPC and training contract or BPTC and pupillage.

Have you got any particular career areas that you've thought about, even if you're not certain about which path you want to take?