Vocational qualifications and apprenticeships voted

The education charity that sets vocational degrees, Edge and the City & Guilds Group, undertook a survey of more than 3500 parents asking them about the chances of employability for students with apprenticeships and vocational qualifications against those with degrees. 57% of parents voted that if their child obtained a plumbing degree it would make them "very employable". Similar to plumbing, parents voted highly at 51% for IT courses, 44% for automotive engineering and 43% for construction. Interestingly only 53% and 47% of parents voted for law degrees and maths, respectively.

However, despite many parents supporting more practical qualifications, and admitting that achieving a university degree was "not very employable", many still said that they wanted their daughters and sons to go to university. Chris Jones, who is chief executive of City & Guilds, believes that this paradox is something that society needs to address: ""¦it's not surprising that so many [parents] want their children to go to university; for too long, it was portrayed as the best and only route to success." He strongly argues that children must be exposed to all options, and not just academic, before pursuing a decision that will be right for them. As he says, this could be "an apprenticeship, going straight into employment or pursuing a degree."

Image courtesy to Flickr, Creative Commons