New College Graduates To Be Cryogenically Frozen Until Job Market Improves

I guess that will include those highly intelligent, work motivated grads with those very useful media & stage management degrees
I do hope the refrigeration system does not breakdown when we finally shift from electricity as a primary energy source.

In my experience, stage managers are of necessity a very intelligent and resourceful bunch and if they weren't extremely motivated and hard working they could never begin to have a career. It seems unlikely that none of those who set out to train for the profession share these qualities. I have no doubt at all that the same applies to many of those aiming for careers in the media. You may have little respect for the qualifications - that's up to you - but you shouldn't make such crass generations about the young people who enrol on these courses in good faith.

I do think there's an issue with the sheer number of vocational courses in certain disciplines, churning out more graduates than there are jobs and thereby setting those individuals up to fail, but it's just ugly to dismiss people in such a high handed way.

Media degree's have been a fashionable term to cover both useful and less useful degrees. Sadly some of what used to be good very good courses in Graphic Design, for instance, have been given the name 'media' and it is very hard as an employer to find out what they have studied.

Media may cover a course that analyses Freudian imagery in advertisements (useless), or on the other hand may produce a graduate who can go into an edit suite and help make programmes straight away.

Having interviewed quite a few media graduates in the last few years I can say that the standard is very variable. One I employed is one of the most creative and hard working individuals I have ever met, another was sacked after a couple of weeks as the work they showed at the interview was simply produced by 'parrot fashion' from course work, and produced an individual that was of no use to future employers (and he was the good one at those interviews).

Stage managers have my utter respect, if they can do it, they are one of the most important people involved in a production. Their TV equivalent being 'floor manager' of 'assistant director', both of which such a graduate could aspire to. Very hard work, and lots of ego balancing too.

Media was the fashionable term for degree courses after the 80's love of 'business' and 'management' degrees. The name of the course is not as important as where you study it.

The problem we are facing in UK is a slow & slippery slope to a 2nd division country with an economy & industry to match.
To avert this we need to make & sell tangible material & commodities as does Germany & China.
We need a surplus in our import/exports, we need to get back the entrepreneurial invention & industry of years ago that made this country what it used to be.

The country needs to be run like a business, a profitable business, not a social club.
We cannot exist as a country selling media & arts.

We need management & business for sure, but arguably more important are the engineering & science subjects, these skills are what will grow this country.

Media & other such degrees take up valuable & scarce university resource & finances that should be used to better fund degrees that will contribute to growing this country. We should go back to the polytechnics that used to handle this type of training, but lets just make sure its for students who have the skills & the work ethic & get the courses set for them only with a fast track schedule & not the dos house schedules we have now.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike-B:
The country needs to be run like a business, a profitable business, not a social club.
We cannot exist as a country selling media & arts.

The US seems to do OK with the revenues it gets from Hollywood, which ten years ago were the biggest export revenue generating industry in the US. (It is possible that computing, and the games industries may have grown bigger since then, I do not know.)

A balance is what we need, and yes there are too many poor media degrees, but as someone who came from a school that only encouraged study in the sciences I can definitely say that working in the arts has been successful in that I have a good career, and I have worked on some very successful exports for this country, as well as a little US junk.

On a similar note I did find it very funny at the end of the most recent 'Top Gear' series to see Jeremy Clarkson lamenting the destruction of the UK manufacturing industry during the 1980's, laid waste by one of his heroes.

quote:

he US seems to do OK with the revenues it generates from Hollywood.

YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS !!!

"but as someone who came from a school that only encouraged study in the sciences I can definitely say that working in the arts has been successful"

perhaps it was the science discipline that helped to make you successful in your chosen field.

Perhaps discipline is not wholly unknown in other areas of study.

quote:

Originally posted by Derek Wright:
"but as someone who came from a school that only encouraged study in the sciences I can definitely say that working in the arts has been successful"

perhaps it was the science discipline that helped to make you successful in your chosen field.

No it is creativity and the ability to work very hard. It is a myth that only science has discipline to it, the arts do so too.

Science at school became a dull repetition of facts, art, especially once I started at college/poly/university became challenging and self motivated. I could never have worked for 24 hours continuously in the science environment that I was shown, but arts offer the opportunity to start a (creative) process and work until it is finished.

That does not mean that science at its best does not offer the ability to work that way, as many of Brian Cox's excellent programmes have shown, as well others (Horizon is still a favourite). But my experience of education and work has been that working in the arts is as creative, fulfilling and important.

As for the revenues Hollywood generates for the US, look it up. You don't think they invest millions in a film without getting a damn good return. $$$$$$$$$$$'s

I find that mainstream science does not allow for creativity at work. I hated what I was studying during medical school and really wanted to switch to engineering because that field would allow me to design as opposed to recite. However, social circumstances prevented me from making that jump.

Once graduated, I started my specialization in plastic surgery and this has given me the opportunity to be a scientist and an artist at the same time. Medical researchers are another bunch that need to be creative withing the sciences. Engineers in R&D have to do the same too. The difference IMHO, is that creativity within the sciences discipline is only allowed within the limits of physics, biology, physiology, etc. In the arts, on the other hand, one can really take it way outside the box.

Regards...