University Loans

[DaGaffer]

That's why people like Rolls Royce will sponsor a few students rather than fund courses at random. It's very very hard to get the sponsorship. You have to impress them with your existing work, you have to attend assessments and interviews, you have to be a highly motivated individual. Not someone who stumbles into an engineering degree with no real idea of what they want to do. I do feel that there is an argument that Uni should be more about learning and getting qualified to do stuff, than simply 'finding yourself'. Go backpacking for that bollocks.

There were a bunch of lads on with Engineering scholarships for RR in Derby when I was at uni; none of them were particularly super-dooper types; how could they be when in reality your A-Level points tell you very little about whether you're going to be a good engineer. As it turns out, none of them got jobs with RR because that year RR binned off all their graduate intake due to cutbacks, including yours truly (I'd got in via the milk round to do bus dev and contracts)

 

[Gwadien]

There were a bunch of lads on with Engineering scholarships for RR in Derby when I was at uni; none of them were particularly super-dooper types; how could they be when in reality your A-Level points tell you very little about whether you're going to be a good engineer. As it turns out, none of them got jobs with RR because that year RR binned off all their graduate intake due to cutbacks, including yours truly (I'd got in via the milk round to do bus dev and contracts)

Derby is at a huge advantage at the minute though with Bombardier, Rolls Royce and JCB though (And maybe others) Other cities such as Leicester have alot more smaller scale industries.

 

[DaGaffer]

Derby is at a huge advantage at the minute though with Bombardier, Rolls Royce and JCB though (And maybe others) Other cities such as Leicester have alot more smaller scale industries.

I was at Uni in Manchester, I don't think the location of the factory had that much to do with it.

 

[Gumbo]

There were a bunch of lads on with Engineering scholarships for RR in Derby when I was at uni; none of them were particularly super-dooper types; how could they be when in reality your A-Level points tell you very little about whether you're going to be a good engineer. As it turns out, none of them got jobs with RR because that year RR binned off all their graduate intake due to cutbacks, including yours truly (I'd got in via the milk round to do bus dev and contracts)

All due respect, I'm guessing that was, er, perhaps a little while ago?

My understanding from the accounts of an acquaintance related to his son going for it, was that it was a very intensive selection process, whittling the candidates down to single figures to be offered the sponsorship. As you might expect now that it's no longer perhaps £3k a year towards living expenses as it might have been in the past, and is now more like £50k plus of funding, including the sandwich year spent in a post. More if they'd funded him through a Masters too. To be clear, this isn't the couple of hundred apprentice academy posts they do per year. I'm not even sure they do it anymore. It was a brightest and best type of deal.

In the end I understand he was offered the post, but accepted an RAF flying scholarship instead and was intent on becoming a fast jet pilot. I'll have to catch up and see what he's doing. He probably found girls at Uni and sacked it all for media.

 

[DaGaffer]

All due respect, I'm guessing that was, er, perhaps a little while ago?

My understanding from the accounts of an acquaintance related to his son going for it, was that it was a very intensive selection process, whittling the candidates down to single figures to be offered the sponsorship. As you might expect now that it's no longer perhaps £3k a year towards living expenses as it might have been in the past, and is now more like £50k plus of funding, including the sandwich year spent in a post. More if they'd funded him through a Masters too. To be clear, this isn't the couple of hundred apprentice academy posts they do per year. I'm not even sure they do it anymore. It was a brightest and best type of deal.

In the end I understand he was offered the post, but accepted an RAF flying scholarship instead and was intent on becoming a fast jet pilot. I'll have to catch up and see what he's doing. He probably found girls at Uni and sacked it all for media.

Which is an eggs in one basket strategy as that person is under no obligation to work for you at the end, or even pay the money back (indentured servitude being illegal and all).

Yes, it was a long time ago, but it was a proper process even back then (nothing to do with apprenticeships), although I'm pretty sure it wasn't worth fifty grand, but then again it didn't have to be because being a student was still (relatively) affordable back then, my student loan was only about £500! (Although admittedly that's because I could earn good money in the holidays doing design work).

 

[Poag]

Dis.

 

[Job]

I know I sound like a broken record, but have you looked around you, everyone in the western world and beyond is looking at a smartphone screen, toddlers use tablets on the potty, everywhere you go most people in public situations are staring at screen, this has happened in 5 years.
In ten years the phones will be able to download 50x faster, they will beam multiple intertwinning screens to your eye, it will be next to impossible to prevent cheating and at that point we will finally realise what a fundamentally incorrect concept cheating is anyway.
Exams? they'll need airport detectors and total spectrum blockers, the very idea of removing people from the sea of information and experience to test them will become ridiculous, technology will be as enveloping as the air we breathe.
We have jumped in a fully fueled rocket of possibilities and someone is about to press the button while the politicians dither over who is going to pay for the launch pad.

 

[Gwadien]

I know I sound like a broken record, but have you looked around you, everyone in the western world and beyond is looking at a smartphone screen, toddlers use tablets on the potty, everywhere you go most people in public situations are staring at screen, this has happened in 5 years.
In ten years the phones will be able to download 50x faster, they will beam multiple intertwinning screens to your eye, it will be next to impossible to prevent cheating and at that point we will finally realise what a fundamentally incorrect concept cheating is anyway.
Exams? they'll need airport detectors and total spectrum blockers, the very idea of removing people from the sea of information and experience to test them will become ridiculous, technology will be as enveloping as the air we breathe.
We have jumped in a fully fueled rocket of possibilities and someone is about to press the button while the politicians dither over who is going to pay for the launch pad.

I hope that the quantum physics of the equilibrium theory of Pythagoras brings into the account that we don't live in a Utopia, in fact it's much the opposite, with the laissez faire society that we exist in co-exists into a nuclear stalemate where astrophysics will decide the victor.

 

[Job]

I like that reply..especially laissez faire..Im going to quote it at my next dinner party.

 

[Gwadien]

I like that reply..especially laissez faire..Im going to quote it at my next dinner party.

Don't be silly, you don't go to dinner parties.

All of your meals are consumed on a on a tray whilst watching TOWIE.

 

[leggy]

Just skimming this thread, at my job, without a degree behind me, but stealing a cup of tea and a quick look at freddies....

Researcher, at a University is a job. Your post makes no sense leggy. Someone is paying for the researcher, and the researcher will have earned their employment as a researcher through their undergrad work at the least. My sister has been at the same University for 23 years now, and she's been an employee there for 19 of them.

Ok it was worded badly but it makes sense if you don't take it quite so literally. Raven was implying that a degree should be for employment which directly impacts an economy (IMO). I was disagreeing. You're quite right that research is a job and that person will spend the money they earn. But the value from some degrees, like Gaff has already said, is much more complex than just facilitating employment.