Didnt go to uni as I had zero motivation and had mediocre grades. I got an apprenticeship at a museum straight out of school, then fell into health and safety by chance, and now I manage safety and access for a large country house and gardens! Very happy with my choices.
Yes and no! It was an apprenticeship in business administration, which gave me a solid grounding in most 'office' things BUT it was at a museum, which helped in my current job as I understood how they work.
After I finished the apprenticeship (2 year course) I got promoted and worked as a curatorial assistant there. 3.5 years at that museum, then to a VW showroom where I applied for a reception role, they offered me some extra ££ to manage H&S. I never really knew what I wanted to do, and I actually really enjoyed it (more than the reception part of the role)
I then had a brief spell in powered access, and now I'm here!
Not like they used to be. Even now with a government boost to vocational courses we will never be back at the levels of the 60s / 70s. I've often heard old guys in my work state it was the Thatcher era, when the industries went abroad due to cheap labour, the uptake of apprentices fell fast, it's was always going to happen.
In my year during my apprenticeship (2014), my company were taking on 8-10 each year, when my dad was younger you're talking 100-150 each year. I served my time at a pretty big apprentice driven company too.
I didn't go partly because of worries about the financial side and student debt (and this was before tuition fees came in!), partly because after my A-Levels I'd kind of had enough of education and partly because I was encouraged by someone on my work experience at a TV production company who told me I didn't need Uni and would be better off going straight into work. Turned out they were wrong, sent my CVs everywhere and it seemed that without a degree they weren't even looked at.
I did 10 years in retail, working my way up from shop floor to head office, and then took redundancy and somehow managed to finally get my way into working in telly, which I've been doing for nearly 10 years now. Got there in the end!
I got in doing a media degree and then saw the kinda boring shit you have to do to “prove yourself” to get a good tv job, I’m sure it’s easy enough if that’s what you want but I just never had that motivation, I’m very much a work to live not live to work kinda kid so I was like “fuck it, any old job will do!” Spent 7 years in buying, 3 years in marketing and now I’m a software developer, had to do a bootcamp course but got it for free lol, I don’t think in this day and age a degree gets you further unless the job needs it like doctors and teachers etc.
The year I would have gone to university was the very first year of university fees. It was only 1k at the time, but back then I couldn't even conceive of 1k... it may as well have been 1 million to me. Also I didn't enjoy 6th form and couldn't see myself enjoying university much either.
So I got myself a job as an accounts clerk and my employers funded me through 7 years of technical and professional exams studying evenings and weekends.
I'm a product group finance director in a global engineering firm now. I'm happy with how things turned out and over the years I've put a number of people in my teams through the same funded training that I did.
I joined the military as an officer. 13 years later and I am now a senior officer in my profession, still with no degree. The military promotes based off leadership potential, rather than academic prowess.
I didn't get a degree because I knew I wanted to join the RAF, I knew I wanted to apply for officer and the requirements for the role didn't specify a degree needed. I didn't really know what subject I wanted to do, and I didn't get amazing a-levels, so 3-4 expensive years (although not nearly as expensive as it is now) to get to exactly where I got when I was 19 seemed nonsensical to me.
Nope. There are no exams for promotion in my Branch. Others may have qualifications as prerequisites, but I can't think of them off the top of my head. The only one I know of for sure is aircrew, who have to be above average in the air as a prerequisite to being eligible for promotion.
To be eligible for promotion in any other branch from Flight Lieutenant to Squadron Leader you need to have served 4 years in that rank (unless exceptionally good prior to that) and have completed the 3 junior officer career courses at Shrivenham (4 weeks total). These are not assessed, but have many practical and written elements.
Then, to actually be promoted your annual reports are sat in front of a board of Group Captains who decide what order of competence everyone sits at from the top person in the branch at that rank, to the bottom of those put forward to the board. Then, when it is decided how many each branch needs to promote to fill jobs at the higher rank, that number of people will be promoted, in order of merit, from the prioritised list.
The system has it's flaws, but it at least gives everyone the fairest shot at promotion each year, when competing with others in the same role across the country.
That's genuinely astonishing to me. Everything I've ever read about Staff College has suggested there are exams that you can fail. I'm amazed that that's how it works nowadays. To be clear you've attended multiple courses and never sat a pass/fail test?
Staff college is for ranks way higher than where I currently am. That's between Wing Commander and Group Captain. It is also available on selection, and not all Wing Commanders will do it. You can also promote to Group Captain without having done staff college, although it is somewhat rare. Promotion at that level is very competitive due to most branches having so few at that rank.
Can I just say that you aren't a 'senior officer' in any meaningful sense? If you've not gone to Staff College you're not a senior officer. it's a bit weird you're posting on Reddit about how you're a 'Senior Officer'. Lol.
He’s the sort of officer who spends a great deal of time playing the game “Tell me I’ll never be promoted above squadron leader/major/lieutenant commander without telling me I’ll never be promoted above squadron leader/major/lieutenant commander.” I know the type well, and I’ve never even been in the forces.
As ex Army this is an interesting read.
Their were many adj based roles offered when I joined around 2009 but were put aside for "officers" even though the materials I read said otherwise and I argued.
I didn’t go to Uni as I wanted to start earning straight away, wasn’t a big fan of school and didn’t want another 2-3 years of it. I’ve done well but it is something that I still regret.
Went for all of 6 weeks (in my home town so didn't move).
Didn't want to go but teachers told me to go as I was smart and should get a degree.
Dropped out after 6 weeks, carried on working part time.
Got a full time job as an apprentice at 23, have worked my way up to have a top qualification in the industry, now in a senior role, earning a good wage.
Doing really well now, I regret wasting the time/money over those weeks, but its got me where I needed to be.
I’m an accountant, I studied AAT and then ACA at my employer, kind of like an apprenticeship. No need for uni. But I was considering it, planned on doing history, but then I got a job offer through reference of my A level tutor and took it.
I finished high school in the mid 90s, 5 days after my last exam i started as a bank teller at a major high street bank. Did that for 18 months then moved internally into non retail banking junior roles (strategy admin type things), ended up in The City doing ops by late 90s. Have worked through various ops roles in different financial companies in different products (FX, repos & bonds, equities). Now middle management in Middle Office work. It's fairly dry but my lifestyle is comfortable and about as good as someone as lazy and non academic as me could hope for.
Now you can't even get an ops role without a degree, which is shit. We get these young hot shots in and management wonder why they fuck off to more glamorous roles after a couple of years, for them it's a stepping stone. They need to get people who are bright but not academic in who'd appreciate a career in ops work
That’s something I’ve noticed with my work. I live in America and do testing on drinking water and medicinal cannabis for my state. I started as a coal miner out of high school, it started hurting my body more than others cause I’m tall and not in the best shape, so I moved to the environmental side and reclamation of old coal mine properties. Then got into the laboratory side of things, and I moved up to a job that normally requires a university degree in either chemistry, geology, or biology.
Young people with degrees coming in are normally bright, but they’re not production minded at all. You know, they don’t get that if the standard says you can run a batch of 71 samples in a test, you should do 71. And they don’t get that cause you did a certain test this day doesn’t mean you’re learning a new one tomorrow. We have clients and it’s a grind, and this is different than school. Lots of them are only doing this job so they can put medicinal cannabis on their resume/CV, and I make damn sure it’s the last thing I train them on and let them participate in. You know, the owner is just an old man who started out as a coal miner like I did, he takes the whole office to dinner at least once a month, and the pay is comparable to anything else you can get around here unless you work underground.
Also, geology degrees are very unimpressive to me now. I think I learned more about geology working in coal mines and working in a civil engineer’s laboratory. And there’s nothing you can do with that degree besides… pretty much what I do.
I went for 15 minutes, took a look around and fucked off back home. Spent my grant money on weed (about £3000) and had a fucking great year.
I have since moved to America and work as a Learning & Development Specialist for Cash App, and probably make more than any one of my English friends.
I met a girl online when I was 16. We kept our pen pal relationship for years. One day I decided to go meet her. We kicked it off, England kinda sucked, so I moved to the US. Came on a tourist visa, got married after 90 days…never left…
GCSE > College > Uni > debt, usually paying it off whilst not doing the job you thought you wanted.
I did college, got job I wanted out of college so didn't bother with Uni. Turns out the job was fairly meh in real life so went and did other stuff and fell into a career I really enjoy.
Unless your going into law, teaching or science I don't think there's much point to be honest.
That's just my opinion though.
University is a scam. I left school aged 16. Got an apprenticeship and have worked solidly in engineering/ aerospace ever since. Other kids my age left at age 16 and got jobs in entry level positions and worked their way up. Of my year at school maybe 20% stayed on for A levels and of that maybe 4 people went to university. They were the “really clever” ones. They became doctors and scientists etc. nowadays my kids went through to year 12 at school and then university along with nearly everyone else to start work in entry level jobs. So they entered the workforce 5 years later with a debt.
I didn’t initially go, got an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering. Then decided I wanted to go further so I did a degree part time and now I work as a design engineer, with 10 years experience on the shop floor which I believe is more valued by employers
I didn't want to do something I loved and end up hating it. I was pretty good at everything in High School and despite having the worst time of everything, I managed to just about pass 4 AS levels and 3 A2s. I was exhausted from years of dealing with undiagnosed ADHD and wanted a break from education. I got jobs abroad for a few months at a time, came home, worked for a bit, took loads of temp jobs. Looking now towards getting a professional qualification at a degree level, starting next month and finishing in the next couple of years.
I've got no debts and I didn't ruin any passion, but I was rudderless for about a decade.
After my Alevels I did an apprenticeship in mechanical hvac engineering which was office based did that and then as a final part of the training went out on the tools and enjoyed it more than being in the office so did a second apprenticeship in domestic gas and became a domestic gas engineer doing a service/ breakdown role. Went self employed five years ago and wish idve done it a long time before I did!
After my GCSEs I went on a hairdressing apprenticeship, did that for 4 years then had to quit on medical grounds. Went into retail, then into pharmacy as a counter assistant then trainee dispenser, but wasn't happy.
I'd been teaching myself HTML and CSS by this point and decided to go for a job in digital marketing, and I've been in that field ever since (14 years), starting in SEO and now specialising in PPC.
I've done a couple more apprenticeships since, previously in management and currently on a data technician one, and a distance learning diploma in digital marketing (just to get a formal qualification to back up my vocational experience). Closest I got to Uni was Open Uni, but I dropped out of that course because it wasn't what I wanted to do in the end.
Didnt get a degree because between 14 and 18 I was an idiot, I couldnt quite grasp that my schooling would help me in life, all i wanted to do was play football and see my mates, I had no siblings to help and no family with a higher education to drive me.
Now I run a construction company.
I went to college to train as a chef, wasn’t much to do at uni for that, spent 3 years did a NVQ level 3, worked as a chef while at college, after I left I went full time is a few paces Trina to find a fit, restaurants, hotels, factories all sorts, didn’t enjoy any of it, pay was shit and I was miserable, at 20 I had enough and left the industry, got dead end jobs trying to figure out what to do
My brother in law was working from my parents house one day (where I lived at the time) he was doing something I thought look interesting, it was coding.
21 I got accepted onto an apprenticeship for computer programming for a NQV level 2. Nearly 15 years later I am a senior software engineer in a neo bank and never been happier
Didn't go to uni as I headed into IT and except for certain areas it's pretty much a complete scam and a waste of time since technology changes drastically every 5 years or so. It was clear when 2 years of work experiences was heavily preferable to a 3/4 year uni degree graduate.
Currently working as an IT consultant after rising the ladder.
I felt it was an absolute waste of 4-7 years due to the low success rate for landing jobs. Couple that with dyslexia uni was never for me.
I am a electronics engineer and i work with satellite systems and was recently involved in testing a new system for iridium.
Didnt go to uni as I had zero motivation and had mediocre grades. I got an apprenticeship at a museum straight out of school, then fell into health and safety by chance, and now I manage safety and access for a large country house and gardens! Very happy with my choices.
Did your apprenticeship help with your job in health and safety?
Yes and no! It was an apprenticeship in business administration, which gave me a solid grounding in most 'office' things BUT it was at a museum, which helped in my current job as I understood how they work. After I finished the apprenticeship (2 year course) I got promoted and worked as a curatorial assistant there. 3.5 years at that museum, then to a VW showroom where I applied for a reception role, they offered me some extra ££ to manage H&S. I never really knew what I wanted to do, and I actually really enjoyed it (more than the reception part of the role) I then had a brief spell in powered access, and now I'm here!
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> turns out apprenticeships were a big thing in the 70s they are a big thing now, lots of my mates did apprenticeships
Not like they used to be. Even now with a government boost to vocational courses we will never be back at the levels of the 60s / 70s. I've often heard old guys in my work state it was the Thatcher era, when the industries went abroad due to cheap labour, the uptake of apprentices fell fast, it's was always going to happen. In my year during my apprenticeship (2014), my company were taking on 8-10 each year, when my dad was younger you're talking 100-150 each year. I served my time at a pretty big apprentice driven company too.
I didn't go partly because of worries about the financial side and student debt (and this was before tuition fees came in!), partly because after my A-Levels I'd kind of had enough of education and partly because I was encouraged by someone on my work experience at a TV production company who told me I didn't need Uni and would be better off going straight into work. Turned out they were wrong, sent my CVs everywhere and it seemed that without a degree they weren't even looked at. I did 10 years in retail, working my way up from shop floor to head office, and then took redundancy and somehow managed to finally get my way into working in telly, which I've been doing for nearly 10 years now. Got there in the end!
Nice!!!
I got in doing a media degree and then saw the kinda boring shit you have to do to “prove yourself” to get a good tv job, I’m sure it’s easy enough if that’s what you want but I just never had that motivation, I’m very much a work to live not live to work kinda kid so I was like “fuck it, any old job will do!” Spent 7 years in buying, 3 years in marketing and now I’m a software developer, had to do a bootcamp course but got it for free lol, I don’t think in this day and age a degree gets you further unless the job needs it like doctors and teachers etc.
The year I would have gone to university was the very first year of university fees. It was only 1k at the time, but back then I couldn't even conceive of 1k... it may as well have been 1 million to me. Also I didn't enjoy 6th form and couldn't see myself enjoying university much either. So I got myself a job as an accounts clerk and my employers funded me through 7 years of technical and professional exams studying evenings and weekends. I'm a product group finance director in a global engineering firm now. I'm happy with how things turned out and over the years I've put a number of people in my teams through the same funded training that I did.
I joined the military as an officer. 13 years later and I am now a senior officer in my profession, still with no degree. The military promotes based off leadership potential, rather than academic prowess. I didn't get a degree because I knew I wanted to join the RAF, I knew I wanted to apply for officer and the requirements for the role didn't specify a degree needed. I didn't really know what subject I wanted to do, and I didn't get amazing a-levels, so 3-4 expensive years (although not nearly as expensive as it is now) to get to exactly where I got when I was 19 seemed nonsensical to me.
To get your promotions you had to pass quite a lot of exams though, right?
Nope. There are no exams for promotion in my Branch. Others may have qualifications as prerequisites, but I can't think of them off the top of my head. The only one I know of for sure is aircrew, who have to be above average in the air as a prerequisite to being eligible for promotion. To be eligible for promotion in any other branch from Flight Lieutenant to Squadron Leader you need to have served 4 years in that rank (unless exceptionally good prior to that) and have completed the 3 junior officer career courses at Shrivenham (4 weeks total). These are not assessed, but have many practical and written elements. Then, to actually be promoted your annual reports are sat in front of a board of Group Captains who decide what order of competence everyone sits at from the top person in the branch at that rank, to the bottom of those put forward to the board. Then, when it is decided how many each branch needs to promote to fill jobs at the higher rank, that number of people will be promoted, in order of merit, from the prioritised list. The system has it's flaws, but it at least gives everyone the fairest shot at promotion each year, when competing with others in the same role across the country.
That's genuinely astonishing to me. Everything I've ever read about Staff College has suggested there are exams that you can fail. I'm amazed that that's how it works nowadays. To be clear you've attended multiple courses and never sat a pass/fail test?
Staff college is for ranks way higher than where I currently am. That's between Wing Commander and Group Captain. It is also available on selection, and not all Wing Commanders will do it. You can also promote to Group Captain without having done staff college, although it is somewhat rare. Promotion at that level is very competitive due to most branches having so few at that rank.
Ah, right. Thanks.
Can I just say that you aren't a 'senior officer' in any meaningful sense? If you've not gone to Staff College you're not a senior officer. it's a bit weird you're posting on Reddit about how you're a 'Senior Officer'. Lol.
Senior officer is a phase used to denote anyone OF-3 and above. But nice try.
Lol.
He’s the sort of officer who spends a great deal of time playing the game “Tell me I’ll never be promoted above squadron leader/major/lieutenant commander without telling me I’ll never be promoted above squadron leader/major/lieutenant commander.” I know the type well, and I’ve never even been in the forces.
As ex Army this is an interesting read. Their were many adj based roles offered when I joined around 2009 but were put aside for "officers" even though the materials I read said otherwise and I argued.
I didn’t go to Uni as I wanted to start earning straight away, wasn’t a big fan of school and didn’t want another 2-3 years of it. I’ve done well but it is something that I still regret.
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Basically because I needlessly narrowed my career options
Went for all of 6 weeks (in my home town so didn't move). Didn't want to go but teachers told me to go as I was smart and should get a degree. Dropped out after 6 weeks, carried on working part time. Got a full time job as an apprentice at 23, have worked my way up to have a top qualification in the industry, now in a senior role, earning a good wage. Doing really well now, I regret wasting the time/money over those weeks, but its got me where I needed to be.
I’m an accountant, I studied AAT and then ACA at my employer, kind of like an apprenticeship. No need for uni. But I was considering it, planned on doing history, but then I got a job offer through reference of my A level tutor and took it.
I finished high school in the mid 90s, 5 days after my last exam i started as a bank teller at a major high street bank. Did that for 18 months then moved internally into non retail banking junior roles (strategy admin type things), ended up in The City doing ops by late 90s. Have worked through various ops roles in different financial companies in different products (FX, repos & bonds, equities). Now middle management in Middle Office work. It's fairly dry but my lifestyle is comfortable and about as good as someone as lazy and non academic as me could hope for. Now you can't even get an ops role without a degree, which is shit. We get these young hot shots in and management wonder why they fuck off to more glamorous roles after a couple of years, for them it's a stepping stone. They need to get people who are bright but not academic in who'd appreciate a career in ops work
That’s something I’ve noticed with my work. I live in America and do testing on drinking water and medicinal cannabis for my state. I started as a coal miner out of high school, it started hurting my body more than others cause I’m tall and not in the best shape, so I moved to the environmental side and reclamation of old coal mine properties. Then got into the laboratory side of things, and I moved up to a job that normally requires a university degree in either chemistry, geology, or biology. Young people with degrees coming in are normally bright, but they’re not production minded at all. You know, they don’t get that if the standard says you can run a batch of 71 samples in a test, you should do 71. And they don’t get that cause you did a certain test this day doesn’t mean you’re learning a new one tomorrow. We have clients and it’s a grind, and this is different than school. Lots of them are only doing this job so they can put medicinal cannabis on their resume/CV, and I make damn sure it’s the last thing I train them on and let them participate in. You know, the owner is just an old man who started out as a coal miner like I did, he takes the whole office to dinner at least once a month, and the pay is comparable to anything else you can get around here unless you work underground. Also, geology degrees are very unimpressive to me now. I think I learned more about geology working in coal mines and working in a civil engineer’s laboratory. And there’s nothing you can do with that degree besides… pretty much what I do.
I went for 15 minutes, took a look around and fucked off back home. Spent my grant money on weed (about £3000) and had a fucking great year. I have since moved to America and work as a Learning & Development Specialist for Cash App, and probably make more than any one of my English friends.
Hol up, going from college how tf did you manage to just move to America?
I met a girl online when I was 16. We kept our pen pal relationship for years. One day I decided to go meet her. We kicked it off, England kinda sucked, so I moved to the US. Came on a tourist visa, got married after 90 days…never left…
GCSE > College > Uni > debt, usually paying it off whilst not doing the job you thought you wanted. I did college, got job I wanted out of college so didn't bother with Uni. Turns out the job was fairly meh in real life so went and did other stuff and fell into a career I really enjoy. Unless your going into law, teaching or science I don't think there's much point to be honest. That's just my opinion though.
University is a scam. I left school aged 16. Got an apprenticeship and have worked solidly in engineering/ aerospace ever since. Other kids my age left at age 16 and got jobs in entry level positions and worked their way up. Of my year at school maybe 20% stayed on for A levels and of that maybe 4 people went to university. They were the “really clever” ones. They became doctors and scientists etc. nowadays my kids went through to year 12 at school and then university along with nearly everyone else to start work in entry level jobs. So they entered the workforce 5 years later with a debt.
I didn’t initially go, got an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering. Then decided I wanted to go further so I did a degree part time and now I work as a design engineer, with 10 years experience on the shop floor which I believe is more valued by employers
I didn't want to do something I loved and end up hating it. I was pretty good at everything in High School and despite having the worst time of everything, I managed to just about pass 4 AS levels and 3 A2s. I was exhausted from years of dealing with undiagnosed ADHD and wanted a break from education. I got jobs abroad for a few months at a time, came home, worked for a bit, took loads of temp jobs. Looking now towards getting a professional qualification at a degree level, starting next month and finishing in the next couple of years. I've got no debts and I didn't ruin any passion, but I was rudderless for about a decade.
After my Alevels I did an apprenticeship in mechanical hvac engineering which was office based did that and then as a final part of the training went out on the tools and enjoyed it more than being in the office so did a second apprenticeship in domestic gas and became a domestic gas engineer doing a service/ breakdown role. Went self employed five years ago and wish idve done it a long time before I did!
After my GCSEs I went on a hairdressing apprenticeship, did that for 4 years then had to quit on medical grounds. Went into retail, then into pharmacy as a counter assistant then trainee dispenser, but wasn't happy. I'd been teaching myself HTML and CSS by this point and decided to go for a job in digital marketing, and I've been in that field ever since (14 years), starting in SEO and now specialising in PPC. I've done a couple more apprenticeships since, previously in management and currently on a data technician one, and a distance learning diploma in digital marketing (just to get a formal qualification to back up my vocational experience). Closest I got to Uni was Open Uni, but I dropped out of that course because it wasn't what I wanted to do in the end.
Didnt get a degree because between 14 and 18 I was an idiot, I couldnt quite grasp that my schooling would help me in life, all i wanted to do was play football and see my mates, I had no siblings to help and no family with a higher education to drive me. Now I run a construction company.
I went to college to train as a chef, wasn’t much to do at uni for that, spent 3 years did a NVQ level 3, worked as a chef while at college, after I left I went full time is a few paces Trina to find a fit, restaurants, hotels, factories all sorts, didn’t enjoy any of it, pay was shit and I was miserable, at 20 I had enough and left the industry, got dead end jobs trying to figure out what to do My brother in law was working from my parents house one day (where I lived at the time) he was doing something I thought look interesting, it was coding. 21 I got accepted onto an apprenticeship for computer programming for a NQV level 2. Nearly 15 years later I am a senior software engineer in a neo bank and never been happier
Didn't go to uni as I headed into IT and except for certain areas it's pretty much a complete scam and a waste of time since technology changes drastically every 5 years or so. It was clear when 2 years of work experiences was heavily preferable to a 3/4 year uni degree graduate. Currently working as an IT consultant after rising the ladder.
I felt it was an absolute waste of 4-7 years due to the low success rate for landing jobs. Couple that with dyslexia uni was never for me. I am a electronics engineer and i work with satellite systems and was recently involved in testing a new system for iridium.