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Main Content
Is going back to school in the recession a good idea?
'Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it' , that might be a good stance to take if you are a young graduate or professional at the moment stuck in a rut due to the economic slowdown.
It seems so unfair that after years of investing time and energy into the books that just when you graduate and feel ready to take a ten foot dive into the big bad working world, there are no jobs to be seen.
According to the European affairs job site, Eurobrussels, 250,000 visitors log on each month in search of new exciting opportunities in the European Union and NATO capital, but aspirations are quickly axed when readers are greeted with job adverts like the one the European Council on Refugees and Exiles posted today(18 February). “The ECRE is offering five six-months internships at its Brussels office”; the offer sounds attractive at first but when you read the smaller print, it continues to say that, “the posts are full-time but unpaid”.
For somebody fresh out of college with a part-time job in H&M, the unpaid internship at ECRE could be fine but for a young professional with an undergraduate degree, a postgrad and three internships under its academic belt, it is just not an option, and certainly not if there is no guarantee of a paid job at the end. This is the opinion of a young professional from the Netherlands, Liselotte Sieffers. The 27 year old dreams of a job in the audiovisual sector working with children and has dedicated the last decade working towards that but looking out the window of her father's flat in Amsterdam at the futile state of affairs, she came up with another idea; going back to school. Instead of spending her time being over worked, and underpaid, Liselotte has enrolled on a postgraduate programme to become a primary school teacher. “It is definitely because of the economic circumstances that I am going back to university", she confesses,”I would not have done it to further myself”.
Although she seems somewhat 'forced' to change her goals, she is positive and feels that going back to school will be worth it. And she is not the only one. Although it is a relatively new phenomenon and little research has been carried out, attendance numbers at universities have been gradually increasing. Education websites have been offering numerous reasons on why going back to school for a second degree is the best thing that you can do in a recession. But will it benefit you in the long run both financially and professionally? Sarah Hull doesn't think so, “I think any extra skills and qualifications can boost your CV and ultimately be beneficial but I think that there is a limit as to how many qualifications you should need to get a job”. She feels that a Masters and existing work experience should be enough.
“People shouldn't be going back to school because they can't find a job....they should be doing it because they want it”. The 28 year old has been looking for a new job in the international humanitarian and development sector since last month and has decided to take up swahili while she hunts. “Education is a key for unlocking Europes potential”, said Androulla Vassiliou this weekend in Brussels. The brand new culture, multilingualism and youth Commissioner for the European Union is “fully convinced of the benefits of learning mobility, new language skills, new cultural experiences, and assures that employers recognize and value these benefits,”.
But according to the Statistical Office of the European Union, Eurostat, there are currently 22 million people unemployed within the EU, and although the most enriching thing to do to overcome the recession could be to further your education, most people are not in a financial situation to do so. So while the EU, national governments and national training and employment authorities need to provide more subsidized schemes, individuals need to see that light at the end of the tunnel by keep themselves occupied and if need be, start learning swahili online!
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