The Ramblings of a Disgruntled Graduate

Bleak Times

I graduated from the University of Manchester over a year ago. I currently work at a Tesco store near you, the same part time job I was working my way through both College and University with. I am not alone. If you have been reading the newspapers and watching the news then you will have noticed that things are not all gravy, so to speak. Every year, more than 300,000 people graduate from UK Universities, and this year will be no different, except for the fact that the UK economy is at a 28 year low.

A little about me:  I graduated in a degree that combined Media and Sociology. Yes, lets all laugh. When I am asked by customers at my part-time job what I studied, or read, for the more up their own bums folk, I am greeted with sorry looks on their faces. As you will know, these subjects are seen as ‘soft’, but I was good at them, and that’s why I did them. Now I know that being good at something does not mean you necessary like doing it. I am pretty good at cleaning the bathroom but I don’t like doing it. Like many, I found myself continuing through the education system with no idea where I was going, in the blind hope that I may find my way in life.

I have done part time work experience for a magazine, I write in my spare time for non-paid websites such as Itchy Manchester, and I work part time at Tesco. *Chortle* But it’s a job, its money, and I am lucky to have it in the current economic climate. But having applied for many jobs and been to several interviews, I am to willing myself up each morning. We are in an ultra competitive market, my friends.

The UK Needs You!

And yet Ministers continue to push for increases in the proportion of graduates. Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Or is that just the letter from the student loans company stating when you will begin paying back your loan. This is, according to officials, to enable the UK to maintain its competitiveness with the rest of the world – in the unemployment stakes by any chance???

But all is not lost fellow graduates. The ‘Intern Plan’ rides in from the horizon. This involves the government talking with employers to try and get them to offer paid internships for 3 months. This has included companies such as Barclays and Microsoft. However, it was reported on the news days later that several of the companies mentioned are not actually upping their intake, but taking on the same number of graduates as they usually would. Further more, a survey by High Fliers Research of 100 firms conducted recently found that recruitment targets have been cut by 17%this year. Good times ahead…