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Penguin Announces You Don’t Always Need a Degree

Well known book publishers, Penguin (Random House) have announced that a degree is no longer required to apply for jobs with them.  

This is interesting as over recent years, we have seen an increase in jobs being advertised requiring degrees for many jobs and no account being taken of a person’s experience and personal qualities.

Penguin say that they want more variety in their staff.

They have also noted that having a degree does not mean that a person is good at their job.

This comes at a time when some financial companies are also saying they no longer require applicants to have degrees. Deloitte, Ernst and Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers have all said they will stop looking only for people with degrees.

In 2008, Derek Longhurst, the Chief Executive of Foundation Degree Forward (an organisation leading the development of foundation degrees in the UK), said “"I do think the trend is for all professions to have a higher education qualification related to their field of work."

It is interesting that just eight years later, larger organisations like Penguin are moving away from the need to have degrees.

Andy Powell, CEO of Edge said “Far too often, academic achievement is seen as the only route to securing a good job; the truth is that there is a wide variety of routes to great careers. From mechanical engineering to design, many careers can be entered via apprenticeships, qualifications from further education colleges or good training schemes in the workplace. Sadly, most young people in the UK aren’t exposed to these other routes. There is parental or other pressure to go down the university route without thinking about what the young person actually wants to do. At Edge, we believe that all routes to career success should be considered.”

So is a degree really necessary?  From Powell’s comments and the views from Penguin et al above, it looks as though academic achievement through traditional further education is not the only way to get a job. Having a good skills set, education, experience and knowledge are just, if not more, important.

At ACS, we don’t believe in filling our students’ head with facts. We believe in giving our students high quality knowledge that they can then use and apply to their work and life.

If you would like to learn more useful skills, knowledge and experience, then take a look at what we have to offer - from Short Courses to Advanced Diplomas

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