I was doing some research through the archives at work today, and came across this from 1988… Nice to know things still haven’t changed from the year I was born.
The Graduate. { i-D The Graduation Issue. }
This month thousands of students will be graduating all over the country and find jobs that 10 years of education will not have trained them for. Art students will become waiters, fashion students will work in shops, history students will work in libraries, and 20% won’t work anywhere. 15 years ago half of the 16 year olds leaving school were able to walk into a job. Today over 80% will walk into the dole office. Making the grade in ‘88, it seems, is not enough.
Never before has the education system been so ill-equipped to deal with a society it is supposed to be training young people for. You are still taught to expect a job, and when the job doesn’t materialise, training schemes are devised to provide cheap labour for manufacturing industries that have passed their sell-by-date. In a climate of a state education system being systematically dismantled, schools being unable to replace books or equipment, and art-based courses being slashed, the government wants to make religious education compulsory. In the hi-tech ’90s the bible is probably going to be the graduate’s only friend.
But graduating is not just about sealed certificates and exams. In the University of Life it takes talent, determination and a lot of luck. Even if the government isn’t investing in an education system that will provide people with the skills needed to stay out of the dole queue, some people are investing in themselves.
