Apprenticeships not just for boys

[original PM]

I think the challenge is these days unless you start your own business or are incredibly good in your field you will be in debt when you start work and your salary will be pretty low.

But it has to be that way - with more and more people working until they are 70 onwards and the average UK wage being approx £26.5k then the fact is you will be doing an awful lot of work (until you are maybe 28-30) and earning very little.

Maybe enough to buy a small flat or even a house if you get married.

Times are changing

[MicrosoftBob]

I think it's more an issue that women as seen as more suitable than men for menial office jobs, so men get relegated to the factory floor.

To be fair there's nothing stopping men from getting boob jobs and trying to compete

[Ticktock]

from one of the accountancy schemes I saw I think a degree was also included.

If I was 18 at the moment I would be moving everything to get on one of those schemes rather than uni as you would end up at least £80k better off.

2 kids from my village set up a local magazine and made themselves a nice little packet, especially when they sold it off before they went into A-levels and off to Uni.

One of them has taken a placement with Logica, day-release type scheme - they pay his course fees and give him an OK salary (for his age), his is commited to a couple of years with them when he finishes his degree. He will come out of it with the degree, the experience and a little bit in his savings account.
His mate was too proud for that (and had much richer parents), went off to Uni and is racking up the debts. He will come out of it with the degree and a lot to pay off.

[Zero Liability]

from one of the accountancy schemes I saw I think a degree was also included.

If I was 18 at the moment I would be moving everything to get on one of those schemes rather than uni as you would end up at least £80k better off.

Agree with this. This is the sort of thing guidance counsellors don't really do much to open your eyes towards. I would've much preferred to do an apprenticeship or funded degree with the likes of EY than what I ended up doing, which had the additional bonus of debt tied to it. I still plan to get on a grad scheme with one of the Big 4 or the mid tiers this coming year, but I am considering doing the AAT (lv2) just to open up the number of schemes that I can get onto, as a lot of them will fund the CIMA if you're part-qualified for the AAT.

[Doggy Styles]

Doodab, any of those caulies left? My mother-in-law wants a couple.

[MyUserName]

I did a degree with a sandwich placement. Best thing that ever happened to me. Previously I was wavering between being an army officer and an actuary.

When I worked for just over a year as a software developer and realised I could make almost as much money as an actuary with about 10% of the work whilst not being shot at my mind was made up and I became a software developer. I knew C++ and MFC and this was in 1999 where you could barely swing a cat without hitting a job as a programmer.

I do not know whether sandwich courses are still offered but I hope so, they rock!

[SueEllen]

I do not know whether sandwich courses are still offered but I hope so, they rock!

They still exist

Loads of the universities who got their charters in the 60s promote them. The issue they have is that there are more students who want to do a year in industry than companies who want them in the UK and Europe. There are also some courses i.e. Golf Management where if you don't have an industrial place you can't do the course.

[Dallas]

They still exist

Loads of the universities who got their charters in the 60s promote them. The issue they have is that there are more students who want to do a year in industry than companies who want them in the UK and Europe. There are also some courses i.e. Golf Management where if you don't have an industrial place you can't do the course.

Thats how I got in. After the year I managed to transfer to a local Uni and continue to work for them 15 hours a week then permie on graduation. They even included my entire duration there when they made me redundant about 2 years later, covering all debts

Considering when a Uni peer showed up at a Bank I was at post redundancy. He was coming at entry level and I was 3 years ahead. Was very lucky!

(edit: I was the only one in my year to have got a placement (re-reading Sue Ellens email) managed 2 offers, Edinburgh vs London, went to the smoke)

[MyUserName]

(edit: I was the only one in my year to have got a placement (re-reading Sue Ellens email) managed 2 offers, Edinburgh vs London, went to the smoke)

Wow, no one on my course who wanted a placement did not get one. I got two offers, one from IBM and one from Lockheed - oddly they were both in the same building which was a strange coincidence.

I was the highest earning out of us for years (apart from one guy who was a professional rugby player at international level). Only got over taken in our mid-late twenties by a mate who got a job as an accountant in London and got a massive salary. Now I am a contractor I stay out of those conversations

[SimonMac]

Assuming you want to be an accountant...

They would own your soul.

I didn't think accountants had souls, or sense of humor, or imaginations!

As eek said this ClientCo brings in a a raft of apprentices each year (roughly 50/50 split of boy and girls), granted there is no assurance of a job at the end of it but neither has a uni graduate