25 Dec 2016

There’s a lot of social pressure to head to uni. Your school, your parents, your siblings and your friends all seem to have opinions about your studies. But they’re not the ones who actually have to go there and study and sit in exams and stay up all night writing essays. You are. So, you’ve got to enjoy it, at least a little bit.

Here’s the thing though, we don’t blame you if you’re not super keen to head to uni. The Year13 office is a mix of uni drop-outs and people who have studied for years, so we know that uni works for some people but not for others.

Some parts of uni are less than ideal and there’s plenty of other pathways out there that will get you educated, qualified and on your way to a successful career. While you might not be keen on uni, you could be interested in other options like as a business traineeship with our mates at ARC.

This is why we’ve broken down some of the reasons behind why you might not want to head to uni and give you the low-down on the alternatives.

1. The cost

Once you get into the big, wide world outside those school gates, the first thing you’ll notice is that everything costs money and one of the major downfalls of uni is it’s pretty exxy.

Yeah, you can chuck all your fees onto your HECS debt, but you still have to pay it off eventually. Not to mention costs like transport, parking, textbooks, tech and printing and, on top of all that, you usually have to complete unpaid pracs and internships, which require you to take time off work.

In the short term it might not seem so bad, but eventually these costs stack up and you’ll find yourself living off Mi Goreng and 7 Eleven $1 coffees (no judgement) just so you can scrape together enough coin to pay for your parking pass.

On the other hand, vocational education and training (VET) pathways are drastically different. Because pathways like apprenticeships and traineeships combine training and employment, you’re actually paid to learn. Just like a job, you’ll get regular pay as well as gaining a qualification and learning valuable skills.

At the end, there’s no massive debt hanging over you and the stats show that the starting salaries of VET and uni graduates are actually really similar; VET graduates even have the potential to earn higher salaries than Bachelor degree graduates.

2. Trying to find a job

It’s no big secret that the workforce is changing and going to uni doesn’t guarantee you a job anymore. The rate of uni grads in full-time employment after they finish their education continues to drop.

That’s not to say you’ll never find a job if you decide to do a uni degree, it’s just becoming harder and taking longer. Experience is becoming more and more valued over theory knowledge which means that uni grads are struggling to land full-time gigs.  On the flip side, VET graduates now have a higher employment rate and the national skills shortage means there’s a tonne of jobs that need workers ASAP.

Whatever pathway you choose will require hard work and commitment to land your dream job (there’s no such thing as an easy ride) but you can give yourself a leg up and get a more practical learning experience.

3. Not knowing what you want to do

Another reason you might not be keen on uni is simply because you have no idea what you want to do. Jumping into a degree is a big commitment, and while you always have the option to defer or transfer, you might be worried about the risk of changing your mind and losing all the progress in your degree.

One of the major perks of something like a business traineeship is that they’re a lot shorter than your average uni degree. You can get qualified in a year which is perfect for anyone who’s worried about the commitment of a three to five-year degree.

Plus, if decision making really isn’t your strength, a business traineeship will give you a tonne of transferable skills that are relevant to a range of jobs and industries. You’ll be learning and working in a professional corporate environment which will make you 100% prepared for working in the business world (because that’s exactly where you’ll be trained).

Uni is a solid pathway that can lead to great things if that’s the path you want to choose. All we’re saying is if you’re not keen on uni, we don’t blame ya.

Luckily there are other options out there and, if a one-year business traineeship is sounding pretty good, the folks at ARC are there to help you get started. By doing a business traineeship, you’ll get all the perks we mentioned (like being paid to learn and practical work experience). Plus, ARC make it super easy to start and will help you every step of the way.