I have wanted to work since I was a child. I saw that work gave you money, and money gave you freedom to live. Understanding of course that freedom was not free, you have to earn it, buy it and maintain it. And fully believed that if you didn’t work, you would starve. I had no idea until almost a teenager that benefits were a thing. My mindset was that I should be as helpful and productive as possible, to give myself the best chance of survival. Of course, life gets in the way of whatever you think you will be, or what you want to happen. And it did. I had a rough patch for a few years from mid to late teens and I had to drop out of school and mainstream education. No exams. which of course made me think, no future. It was the mid 90’s, there a big drive for people to go to university, student loans took off and suddenly there were all sorts of courses to do and it was made accessible to people from all walks of life as they put it.

But it didn’t appeal to me for many reasons. Firstly, I did not have a subject that I was taken with at that age, I liked so many things it was hard to narrow it down to just one. I was very good at drawing at the time, so got talked into trying art college. I lasted 6 months, and of that my attendance was shocking. I did not like the relaxed setting for learning, and it was too corporate for feeling creative. Although I met some really sound people, it struck me that most of them were just wasting a couple of years by being there. To take the pressure off so their family didn’t hassle them to decide on uni. It started to become more interesting to question people on their motivations for choices, and where they hoped those decisions might lead them. Studying art felt like a complete waste of time. Because that was not what I wanted to do as a career. It looked like a very hard and thankless job ‘the struggling artist’ perception. Luckily, I do it for enjoyment now, because it really doesn’t pay the bills for me despite having created quite a portfolio of drawings, paintings, photography, books and designs.

It dawned on me though, that many people of my age group were getting themselves unneccessarily in debt, on the whim of having a degree in something, whether it would be useful or not. So I looked at that as the starting point, why did everyone want them? I’ll use my own family experience, my grandparents on one side went to University, and fully believed that if you had a degree it would mean you would be guaranteed employment. Because I think in their day, that is how it was. I held my ground and said no, a degree was not needed. Four years out of the job market when I already felt behind was not going to suit me at all, got to get on and all that, and why would you want to start so far in debt, it made no sense to me. Within a few years and a great number of jobs later, I found myself working in recruitment. Helping people find work and prepare their CV’s and understand their skills to assist placing them.

What I found were a couple of prevailing attitudes. Firstly, the worn down type, who seemed to realise their situation of extreme debt, limited jobs in their chosen field and the reality of life after uni. The other was the self-entitled one, the “I have a degree and I wont work for under £15.00 per hour”. Which is fine to have that attitude, it really is and may work in some walks of life. But when there is work available for £8.50 per hour, and you have no skills or experience for the higher rate job, you have to start somewhere. So maybe it was a good thing that I have had jobs in finance, catering, property, care homes, recruitment, pubs, and markets. That I got myself experience in all sorts of industries and with all sorts of people from different backgrounds. And even though I may be doing ok at the moment having worked really hard for it, I still might end up cleaning toilets again for £5.00 per hour, because you really don’t know what life may throw at you, but having a ‘let’s gets on, can do’ attitude can possibly help along the way.

Aside from all that, I understand we are now in very odd times for employment. Many jobs and futures have been taken away or restricted of late, automation seems to be moving in where it can and what was once a sound career may now need revisiting. In this we may have to come up with new ideas and ways forward for peple, to keep things moving and progressing at a pace that includes everyone and can be maintained.

(c) K Wicks