Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Economics, government & businessEducation - further and higherSkills shortagesRecruitment & retentionOpinion

Have a rant: Skills gap or reality gap?

by Personnel Today 7 Jan 2008
by Personnel Today 7 Jan 2008

Is there a skills shortage? Of course there is. If I had been required to mortgage my future for 25 years to go to university, I would not have gone. I benefited from a maximum grant and, supplementing it with work during the holidays, I was able to finish with a zero balance in my bank account – no savings, but definitely no debt.

My son has returned from his first term at university with a debt from his loans – £1,000 for fees and £1,000 for maintenance (supposedly for living costs, which was all taken up paying hall of residence fees) – and a £400 overdraft, which he needed to top up the £400 grant/bursary to pay for everything else. The overdraft, of course, is not at preferential ‘student’ rates. Bank shareholders are doing well out of our students, that’s for sure.

How does the government plan to sell the idea of further and higher education to achieve its target of 50% of 18-year-olds attending university? I can see the brochures now: ‘It’s your future – how do you want to spend it? For just £30,000 over 25 years, you can acquire the skills today’s politicians got for nothing. Once qualified, you will have a slim chance of getting a high-paid job where, as well as paying back your ‘debt to society’, you will also pay a higher rate of tax.’

Personally, I admire the girl next door, who has taken a job as a dental hygienist and is studying for her degree with the Open University.

But it will take a particular kind of vision and determination to see that through, and it’s not the answer for everyone.

I already have trouble convincing my second son that it’s a longshot that he will make it as a rock star. As he watches his older brother struggle with his debt, how will I persuade him to go to university and go on to help close the skills gap?

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
Ignore the predictions of doom and focus on you
next post
Kineo appoints operations director as e-learning business grows

You may also like

City firms pledge to improve social mobility in...

20 May 2022

Steep rise in visas for non-EU migrant workers

19 May 2022

One in five employers planning ‘no jab no...

19 May 2022

How to respond to an HMRC furlough enquiry

18 May 2022

AI adoption: Skills shortages means UK lagging behind...

18 May 2022

Nurses leaving due to pressure and workplace culture

18 May 2022

Bald move: Tribunal was right in sex-related harassment...

17 May 2022

Number of working people with disability up 1.3...

17 May 2022

Wages fall 1.2% behind inflation as cost of...

17 May 2022

Lack of flexibility pushes half of women to...

16 May 2022
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+