Don’t expect to get a top job when you graduate, says UCAS boss

The UCAS boss has warned you can’t rely on a degree to land your dream job. 

Chief Executive Mary Curnock Cook said having a good degree will no longer guarantee you a well-paid or interesting career.

The depressing warning comes ahead of the release of A-level results this Thursday.

Crazy Curnock Cook said: “Being a graduate is not a free pass to graduate employment.

“I think they [graduates] should expect to come into the workplace at a relatively low level and develop through hard work.

“They may do some different job roles over a couple of years before they find the niche which takes them onto their own career path.

“They have to prepare themselves to go into the workplace and prove themselves.”

The UCAS boss branded expectations of a degree “entitling” graduates to a good job and rapid progression through the ranks as “wrong”.

She added: “You still have to prove yourself.

“I do not think it is the role of universities to produce oven-ready corporate animals.”

The Chief Exec’s comments have been branded “a wake up call” to freshers and their parents as they wait to receive A Level results.

This year a record number of students are expect to start new degrees, massively increasing competition for grad jobs when they finish.

UCAS say new uni applications have risen two per cent this year since 2014, with 673,040 new applicants.

Curnock Cook said: “More people go to university today than got five GCSEs in 1997 — that is extraordinary.”

Th chief exec, who left school in 16, advised grads to take any job going to start paying off their debts and get experience, rather than punching for their dream career.

The miserable warning comes as a new report by charity the Edge Foundation found only half of grads will get “professional” jobs within six months of leaving uni.

Worse still, it found only 12 per cent of Creative Arts and Design students and 17 per cent of Lawyers found entry level grad jobs.

And almost half of new graduates earn less than £20k a year, thousands less than the average national wage of £27,200.

Edge’s chairman Lord Baker said: “I think quite a lot of students who left last year with good degrees, especially in the arts and social sciences, have not been able to get good jobs. They are working at restaurants flipping hamburgers.”

Heartless UCAS boss Curnock Cook also urged parents not to “featherbed” us by paying for tuition fees, instead encouraging students to pay their own way with loans.

She said: “I think it is a good thing to teach your children to be financially independent by the age of 18.

“I really liked being able to say to my daughter, ‘You are taking out a student loan for £9,000. Why would you not want to work hard and do your best?'”