Faith, Hope, and Misplaced Ambition

I'm reading a book at the moment written by George Orwell in the 1940's.  Its bizarre title belies its content, which I find relevant to today, my own situation, and that faced by the millions of other people in the United Kingdom today.

Misplaced ambition.

For nearly 15 years now, we have been telling our young people that they can do anything and be anything.  "Go to University, get a degree, do any job you want, and get fabulously rich". Wrong!  It doesn't work like that.  Whether you think its right or not, it just doesn't work.  There are nearly 1 million people qualifying with degrees each year, but nowhere near the same amount of graduate jobs.  Those are numbered in the few hundreds of thousands.

So you see we have a disjointed approach to our young people, and their futures.  We are telling them that they can be what they always wanted to be, but not providing that opportunity.  Now especially during the recession and the cut backs, those opportunities are fewer and farther between.

Downton Abbey, the ITV show about an aristocratic family in the early 20th century, has been so popular worldwide that articles have been written as to why.  They all conclude that the different classes of people all knew their place, knew what they had to do, and knew that they could not rise above their station in life.  Things were simple then.  Everyone had a place, a role, and a destiny; be it low or high.  There was no misplaced ambition.

I wonder if a return to those values and those times would make a difference?  An Upper Class, Middle Class, and Lower Class.  Only a few universities in the country, taking a few hundred thousand students in total, with all the rest doing the low paid, skilled jobs that are currently being farmed out to foreigners because we (and our young people) see themselves as above all that.

That is the problem that educating a whole population to HE level brings.  We think we are incompatible with the toilet cleaning jobs, the telesales jobs, and the other less glamorous jobs that have got to be done, just because we are highly educated and expect to get a high-flying, well paid job.

We all need ambition, something to look forward to.  We all need dreams and aspirations.  We should all be highly educated too, as it brings better health, and prosperity.  I grant you all that.  My point is that we misplace that ambition, those dreams, and we don't distinguish enough as to who needs which type of education.  One size does not fit all.

We have all been brought up to want the picture perfect job, and life to go with it.  In reality it isn't as simple.  We need to be more realistic about our chances, and the opportunities that will be presented to us.

I am myself thinking that my ambition is misplaced.  I've been to University more times than I care to remember, and am now probably over-qualified for many things.  I have failed to get a job again and again, probably due to lack of experience.  Perhaps I should just take the cleaning jobs, or the telesales jobs?  Perhaps my desires and dreams of becoming a manager are misplaced?

Having worked in HE recruitment I can see that some young people are not suited for University.  The same is true in life and work.  Some people are not suited for the high-flying jobs and lifestyles.  Perhaps if we weren't all middle class, I would know my place better, and find a job suited to me, instead of being lost in the mist of equality?

Despite all this, and my lack of a life / job / money, I maintain a faith that one day things will be better, and a hope that my life will be on the track that I wish it to be within the timeline I have in my head.  But it is difficult.  For those of you who do stay in touch on a regular basis, you know how tormented I am about my situation at present.  Yet I cling to the wreckage, waiting, and watching for something to happen.

Someone once said "You can survive in life on three things: Faith, Hope, and Money.  Only a Saint can survive without the third".