The OECD have just published another report comparing education across member states. The BBC are reporting on the fact that the UK doesn't do so well (again) in international comparisons.
The statistician in me quibbles over shock statements that Australia, Poland, Iceland and Finland have higher numbers of young people entering university than the UK. These particular 4 economies are very different to the UK, with smaller populations, different social security regimes, different economic bases. Even the geography is very different, with in each case for nearly half the year, the weather making any sort of outdoor life rather difficult (either too hot or too cold).
The learning policy person in me is rather sad that the UK is slipping down the league tables of getting young people into higher education.
However the wider pragmatist in me wonders if there aren't two particular issues here. Firstly, with £28 billion earnings from overseas students, has Higher Education made itself seem a bit like a finishing school for foreigners? More importantly - how do we use our graduates when we have produced them and are they any good? Are our PhD students still heading for lives of serving at MacDonalds, sweeping the labs at GlaxoSmithKlein or driving fork lift trucks at distribution warehouses, as was once the case and the popular joke? Or are they gainfully employed, helping British businesses to compete in the international economy?
I suspect that there is still quite extensive under utilisation (I won't say under employment as that phrase is generally banned in skills circles) of the talents of our graduates. For every mythical one graduate one knows that got that dream job at McKinsey's, and is on mega-bucks with a company Merc at age 27, every one knows the ones that are working in sales, restaurants, recruitment agencies, call centres and warehouses, and not actively using the specific skills they learnt at University. I hope they will be using the generic skills they learnt (problem solving, team work, researching and writing skills), though they might deny either learning those things or using them in their job.
There is nothing wrong with working in sales (we all need to buy things, and it helps if the sales person knows a thing or two), restaurants (we all like to eat out, but someone has to cook, to serve and to clean up after us), recruitment agencies, call centres (yes, they are annoying, but the 24 hour lifestyle dictates someone has to help us out with banking, insurance, computer queries etc) and warehouses (if you want to go to your local supermarket on Boxing Day, someone will have had to work Christmas to ensure there are things in store for you to buy). However in the UK we do not value these roles, and while it is fine for someone else or someone else's children, husband or wife to do them, it is not for us.
If we took pride in some of the less glamorous occupations and stopped expecting everyone to be a brain surgeon or web designer or model or TV star, then the graduates we do have might take on jobs where they can make a difference to UK plc. And that has got to be good for all of us.
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