Get ready to boo and hiss………….
The Daily Mail has an interesting article about ideological diversity in academia. The seemingly Pavlovian reaction many people have to the name “Daily Mail” possibly even proves the point.
Leave aside the political angle of this article, and the same issue remains for the education system. Is groupthink a factor in the poor state of career planning in the UK? I certainly think it plays a part!
I fear that the difficulty an individual has when trying to swim against the tide of conventional wisdom (such as academic performance as the route to career opportunity) compromises career planning in the UK. For example, why isn’t there a comparable route to the UCAS system for non-academic training? Why isn’t vocational training on the same footing as academic options? Why do recruiters use academic metrics as filters for employment? Why are young people in UK compelled to narrow their academic options from the age of 14 (long before many of them know what they wish to do in life)?
I know standard answers to these and other questions, but I’ve never been satisfied by the logic within those answers. I think part of the problem is that there’s insufficient scrutiny of accepted wisdom in the institutions that shape our young people.
If this situation truly does stifle debate (as the article suggests) then I think it’s possible to say that a similar problem stifles career opportunity across the board for those trying to secure first employment.
