Existing funds will still be there, there'll just be no free money from the government for them any more.

"As you say, the starting wage is £18500 but they are a Times top 100 companies to work for firm, and the Times website says that graduates can expect to be earning £45,000 within three years"

That is complete garbage - start on £25k and you'd need a pay rise of 20% each year to reach £45 in three years. That may happen in some banking jobs, or law firms, but it ain't going to happen anywhere else.

I graduated over 20 years ago, started on £17.5k and now I'm getting around £35k after 20 years. People I work with who have PhDs are only getting a few grand more and they've been in work the same length of time. Even the managers level above us are only getting around that much, and none graduated 3 years ago.

Certainly, the right degree will help with some jobs, but I bet a lot of the graduates who can't find a job didn't pick a "useful" subject (the kid next door is doing a degree in American Studies....why on earth would you want to study Americans???? ).

Anyway, rant over...I'm off to twist my manager's arm to get some more money.

Fair play to you. Like Alex, most of the grads I've come across in a work context project entitlement and are utterly useless.

We had a grad, applied to be a programmer. Why? Because he could get a better starting salary and faster career escalation, until he switched into his chosen career of marketing (which has a very poor entry salary).

He got kicked out after about a year of failing to perform - after a year as a programmer, he still hadn't grasped the concept of loops, let alone conditional branching, objects, properties or methods!

Unemployment rate of computer grads baffles BCS

So, I would have been better off doing media studies!?

I taught myself the basics of looping conditional branching with basic years ago. Hardly difficult.

As for graduate unemployment that is bizarre, though why don't they write iPhone apps and go self employed? Do the government give business start up grants any more?

I graduated 9 years ago. Started on around £14k temping for a year or so, then £18k with a new job after 2-3 years there I was earning £24k, I then jumped to over £30k, a short stink with another company & I'm back earning over £40k.
My degree got me the first big payrise but experience & my Microsoft exams got the rest.

My first degree is in Geology my second is in hotel management.

Neither have any relevance what so ever to my job. My second degree was paid for by an employer so I cant even say it got me my first job.

Yay
Boo, hissssss.

No they have other uses. You know how deep to bury bad news and in what rock formation so it does not come up again too quickly,

Brilliant yes that's true.

Cleavage and receptionist management is a nice combo, I find.

As the intro to the book I'm currently reading says:


Not quite the same, but a degree in almost anything must be useful in some way.

Cleavage works with anything sales related.

Fixed