Do academic qualifications scare off potential UK employers.

 

When I left school in 1970 aged 15, it wasn't difficult to get a job or an apprenticeship and most people were in work. If you got on a bus in a morning, the buses were packed with people going to work. Most people of my generation will tell you the same thing.

It became far more difficult to get work after 1979, with the election of a Conservative government and Margaret Thatcher. Between 1979 and 1983, unemployment doubled from 1.5m to 3.0m. There was also a great deal of deindustrialization as Britain moved from being a manufacturing country to a service economy. Many jobs were exported overseas where unit labour costs were cheaper. Courtaulds closed many textile mills and moved to the Mauritius. Most Royal Enfield motor bikes are now made in India. A large factory in my area that made cigarettes and paid very high wages, relocated to the North of Ireland after being given financial inducements at the time of the Conservative government of John Major. This occurred because the Major government used financial incentives in order to get the political support of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), to stay in power. In many parts of the north of England, factories that had employed thousands were closed. The north of England never really recovered from this.

They introduced something called the Youth Training Scheme (YTS), to train young unemployed people. It became known as the Youth Training Swindle. Over the years, I have known many highly qualified people who have spent years in unemployment. A friend of mine who has two science degrees including a Masters, and had spent two years doing a PhD, told me that she found it extremely difficult to get work. It's likely that she was considered over qualified for the type of bum jobs that were available. Another friend told me that he was told by his DWP Jobcentre adviser, not to mention that he had a University Degree because it might scare off potential employers.