University vs work

School leavers miss university to start working life
Page last updated at 06:25 GMT, Friday, 20 August 2010 07:25 UK
E-mail this to a friend Printable version By Simon Mundie

Newsbeat reporter
Laurence says he's working because he doesn't want to get into debt As thousands of A level students continue to search for university places through clearing, Newsbeat's been told many school leavers are choosing to give it a miss and go straight into work.

Companies like Sainsbury's and Tesco say a growing number of teenagers are applying to join their management trainee schemes.

Laurence Carey managed to get a job at department store John Lewis in Cambridge six months ago.

He explains why he decided to miss out on going to university.

"When I left school I was thinking about going to university but I didn't really want to go, so I've been full-time for about six months," he said.

"I work in core bedding, so pillows and duvets. You replenish all the stock, clear all the till points to make it generally presentable for the customers and then it's just serving the customers.

"Each day changes. You can't really prepare for what happens because each customer brings up a different query."

'Ridiculous debt'

Laurence says he decided to start work instead of going to university because he didn't want to be saddled with lots of debt.

He said: "My brother has just come out of university and he's got a ridiculous debt, something like £30,000.

Laurence says he gets to work on the tills for about an hour every day "Whenever you come out of university with a degree, you still have to go in at the bottom and you still have to work your way up and prove yourself.

"As attractive as the partying sounds, it's not for me and I'm enjoying my job here and I'm going to stick at it. I'm loving it."

There are an increasing number of school leavers like Laurence who think giving university a miss is the best option.

Companies like Balfour Beatty and M&S are reporting a surge in the number of applications they're getting.

Sophie is a recruitment manager at John Lewis and says many high achievers at the company joined straight from school.

"There's an opportunity for them to join an internal training programme called Horizons," she explained.

"Potentially a school leaver joining could get on to a programme like that within a couple of months and then be a section manager within a year.

"I can think of some of our managing directors who joined the business straight from school and also we've got somebody who's on the board who joined straight from A-levels.

"To be honest, it's so self driven that if you come in with the right attitude you can go all the way to the top."



this is taken from bbc.co.uk/newsbeat