Your education.

[mrmessy]

Took GCSEs when they were new. "Passed" five of them. Made the mistake of going to art college for two years after that to do a BTEC National Diploma (?). Great for all those 'artist wanted' adverts in the jobs section of the local newspaper. Waste of bloody time.

[learnedrobb]

Went to a comp. Got 9 GCSEs. Did colllege and snagged 3 A Levels. Went to uni and somehow managed to score a B.A. hons degree.

[Mayhem]

Grammar school via 11 Plus exam, GCSEs, A levels, university, Masters in Engineering.

[RodimusPrime]

So are you now a professional fraudster or was it just a phase you went through in your youth?

Made the most of what a shitty system had to offer a new school leaver and make no apologies whatsoever. More than paid back in in the following 18 years.

Actually worked for the DWP for a few years as well.

[Sel Feena]

Left secondary with a handful of GCSEs, did a Mickey Mouse GNVQ in Leisure, then another course in computing, finally degree in computing. Hated school, even though I had to take the long way round for my education was glad to leave.

[flatapex]

high school was 5 years of being bullied, random local high school.

college was 2 years of being ignored as i studied travel and tourism and was one of only 2 men, got the highest mark of anyone and was resented for it.

Uni was a year of studying management, being ignored and then resented when my classmates realised I was getting much higher grades than them.

This was the time I quit uni because i realised my life was a mess, picked up a prospectus for the local night school, booked onto a course and went on holiday, came home and it was cancelled, booked onto the only one left that i liked the sound of, did it for 4 years and actually made friends, went out etc, all very odd.

These days I have a completely different job to what I trained in and have only now in my mid 30s found what i actually want to do, I learned more at night school than I ever did at college, uni or school.

Not seen anyone from uni for years, despite them all vowing to keep in touch. Got 2 people from college on fb, one I used to work with and is decent, another has had me as a friend for years and she has never spoken to me. Was added by a few people from school, mainly because they remember my much more outgoing friend

[DPrinny]

Dropped out of high school due to tons of bad life stuff (people round me dying for a starters) and multiple suicide attempts.
Got some simple qualifications from a kinda boarding school for teens with "mental health issues" (suicidal, self harm and shut-in types, I had ALL THREE!! but not to the extent of some that went)(Geography, maths)
Dropped out of art collage as, well, its bloody useless
Retail course (was ment to help get a job) dropped as sitting in a room filling in forms without any kind of clue as to how wasnt really helping, dont help that those that where running the course didn't really give a toss
IT NVQ 1/2

While out of work
Employability (B/S) courses forced upon me, "You got to know how to be employable" "You got to know how to fill in application forms" "You got to know how to look for work" "Heres a news paper now apply for 10 jobs", b/s 0 hour contracts
Various one day first aid courses, they where free so I went on them
Retail level 1 and 2 ACTUALLY USEFUL THIS TIME! This was post managing a store
English Lit
Basic BSL
SIA but was messed about twice with getting the license
Cleaning (urgh), but it got me a job
Health and safety

[rocky1980]

Standard Grades, then a few highers After that collage for my HND in Electrical Engineering (I did not have enough highers for uni). Then on to Uni, after uni I could not get a job so I went full time at the crappy restaurant I had been working at since I was 14, I did that for a few years until I could not stand it anymore. Got another job in a totally different industry the same one I am in today. I have a few professional qualifications. I will always remember what I was told at high school, I wanted to leave and get an apprenticeship as a sparky. NO they said that was a bad idea apprenticeships are a thing off the past everyone had to got to collage or uni. I wish I had not listened to them and got an apprenticeship

[pratty]

NO they said that was a bad idea apprenticeships are a thing off the past everyone had to got to collage or uni. I wish I had not listened to them and got an apprenticeship

Similar with me.

I went to an all boys school, it was actually a laugh a lot of the time, still in regular touch with mates from there. Then went to do A-Levels, which was also a fairly enjoyable experience.

Was encouraged at college to go to uni, and as I got an A in Media Studies at college I decided to study a similar theoretical Film and Media Studies degree at UCLAN because it was something I was passionate about and something I was evidently good at. It was a waste of time, the degree I got is basically worthless in the real world. I could have gained a large percentage of the knowledge I gained, for a fraction of the price, by simply buying the books and reading in my own time.

Media Studies gets a lot of stick, but I actually do think it has merit as a subject and is worth studying at GCSE and A-Level, because it encouraged critical thinking in me more than any other subject I studied, and I think media literacy is a useful life skill. Practical media production degrees are fine too, but theoretical media degrees such as the one I studied will do virtually nothing in terms of increasing employability, even in the film and media industry, if you must go to uni and you want to write film reviews for a living for example, you're probably better off with a degree in English or journalism.

I do take responsibility for my mistake, although in my young naivety I was under the impression that the whole point of universities was to prepare people for work and enable them to get better jobs than they would probably get without a degree, and so I wrongly assumed they wouldn't offer degrees that employers didn't want. This was my mistake, as it's clear to me now that universities are simply businesses that sell education and accreditation, regardless of whether employers want their degrees or not. If somebody had simply said that to me back then I would have made a much more informed and productive choice about going to university.

At least I made that mistake back then when fees were a fraction of what they are now, I do feels sorry for young people being hearded into uni to study degrees in uselessness, and coming out up to their eyeballs in debt.

[psj3809]

Didnt mind school, no bullying at all, played footy mostly every break/lunchtime

Disliked exams/lessons though, my dad used to put tons of pressure on me (and moan to the school to say i should have more homework) so that backfired in the end as i didnt want to learn more. Left school with only a few GCSE's, started a local computer course when i was 16, went for work experience at a computer company at 17 and stayed there for 10 years. Frustrating when a grad would get a job, be on more money than me (despite me being there a while) but was terrible at their job (Seemed to be David Brents all the time straight from Uni). At the end of the day despite my low wage at my first job the experience then gave me a big pay rise when i left.

Then got a great job, they werent interested in degrees/education, more my experience which was good. From 25+ no ones bothered about my lack of qualifications or degrees, its all about experience now when i look for a job or if someone offers me one. If i look back over the years about 85% of the uni grads i've worked with have been a nightmare, yeah they've got a degree to their name but often their communication skills are terrible, they talk the talk but dont know 'real work'. Again this is just the ones i've worked with, i'm sure in other types of job uni grads work out well.

Still think now experience counts much more than degrees/education. Nowadays as well it seems everyone has a degree so its tough for them to get a job as theyre battling against so many other similar grads

[sscott]

I teach a bit of media studies actually (quite a lot of written work actually).
I come from a non University family and was the first to go (Teesside, a jumped up ex polytechnic), got a degree on graphic design and then did a PGCE in ICT that got me into teaching. Was always a trier than naturally gifted, been teaching 17 years now and was a good choice for me bit really wasn't sure at the time. My wife is about to start her phd, she is the brains of the organisation!

[Shinobi]

I came from the school of Hard Knocks....

[DPrinny]

I came from the school of Hard Knocks....

Not the school of squishy knockers.............

[Sel Feena]

^ Team Ninja Academy, sign me up! Agree with what others have said about degrees maybe not reflecting competence when starters come in. Even worse are bellends who add on their qualifications to their emails etc. No quicker way to signal you're a bit of a nob imo.

[DPrinny]

^ Team Ninja Academy, sign me up! Agree with what others have said about degrees maybe not reflecting competence when starters come in. Even worse are bellends who add on their qualifications to their emails etc. No quicker way to signal you're a bit of a nob imo.

Thinking more High school of the dead