I am due to give the LNAT in August-September next year and I am planning to apply to Oxford, LSE, UCL and Newcastle (for 2025 entry). This is my first attempt at writing an LNAT essay and I didn't time it, but I would appreciate it if law students could judge my essay and give me feedback on the structure, quality of arguments and so on...and of course, if I have any chance of getting into the above universities.
Topic: What is your response to the view that the purpose of education is to prepare young people for the world of work?
The purpose of education is a subjective question. Education involves imparting knowledge to people; but to what end? The obvious conclusion is that the knowledge they are equipped with, would be of use later in life. Whether or not that knowledge is meant solely for their entry into the world or work is the question at the heart of the matter.
I believe that building a capable workforce is, indeed, the purpose of education. Work, whether skilled or unskilled, intellectual or manual, rooted in the arts or in the sciences, requires some degree of education. A lawyer needs a qualifying law degree; a mechanic starts out as the apprentice of another. This suggests that education serves the purpose of building people capable of productive work. The converse is also true; universities today base their claims to fame upon, amongst other factors, the employability of its graduates. The institutions with larger proportions of employed graduates enjoy greater prestige and higher popularity among prospective students; students from schools that, in turn, pride themselves on sending their pupils to these very universities.
Another case to be considered is the existence of state-provided education. Governments spend money on free education of its citizens, respecting education as a fundamental right. However, spending millions of the nation’s money without anticipation of return would put the country’s economic stability at risk, the return being ‘human resource development’, a future productive workforce that would boost the nation’s economy. Some of the world’s most developed economies recognise free and compulsory education as a fundamental right, the United Kingdom, the United States and Switzerland, among others. If preparing students for the world of work was not the purpose of education, governments all over the world would not have invested public money in providing free education.
It can be argued that education, in its most fundamental sense, involves the dissemination of knowledge for its own sake; its purpose being to increase people’s knowledge, whether or not they join the workforce. Such an argument is, however, incomplete. People who have gained education may use it in different forms of work. They may apply it in real-life scenarios, like doctors, engineers, lawyers or executives, or they may be part of a group traditionally classed as involved in the pursuit of ‘knowledge for knowledge’s sake’, such as theoretical scientists, philosophers and other academics. Even the members of the latter group have used their education for a form of ‘work’ - conducting laboratory experiments, writing research papers, publishing scholarly works so that their ideas are preserved for the future. If an educated person does not use his/her training for any of these purposes, practical or academic, their knowledge will die with them; their education has not served an alternative purpose, but rather no purpose at all.
Some might argue that education also serves the purpose of making people more socially responsible, more sensitive to those around them. But even that can be said to be connected to building a more congenial workplace environment for everyone concerned. Consider an example. A person, by virtue of his education, is sensitised towards the importance of regarding specially abled people as equals and respecting their needs. The mere knowledge of this fact does not have any noteworthy impact, but if the person extends this same attitude towards the workplace, being a considerate and respectful colleague towards his specially-abled coworkers, or being an equal-opportunities employer, his education has made a positive impact on the specially abled community; it has served its purpose.
In short, the various purposes for which education is deemed necessary are, directly or indirectly, connected to preparing students to enter the workforce. (606 words)