Leaving education

[chrissylogue20]

Hello

Turning 18 in 2weeks and i've decided that im leaving education to work to myself, has anyone done this before?

Any other advice i need?

Thanks

 

[the king]

One word of advice:

don't!
​

I have no idea of your situation - or disposition (by which I mean you may well be a natural, for whom running a business, selling, making a profit etc. is second nature ...this time next year Rodney...)

On the other hand you're probably a mere mortal like wot most of the posters on 'ere are; all I can say is that enticing as doing your own thing now may sound, re-starting your education in x number of years is, if not nigh impossible then damn difficult.

I realise it's getting to the stage where a PhD is required to wait tables, clean desks etc. but if you intend to run your own business anyway, that's of no consequence; get whatever education you can now (while you still can!) - opportunities will wait.

 

[chrissylogue20]

thats what id be doing anyway after education lol,

Young Entrepreneur & Pro Poker Player

 

[BizGurl]

Judging by what I'm seeing going on with people all around me, you'd be better off trying to get a job. If you want to start a business, get a part-time job so you can run your business part-time. That way you can build up skills and experience of both.

If it was me, I'd personally most probably drop out of study now and do the same, unless I NEEDED to study further, or was doing a PRACTICAL vocational course that would actually help me acquire REAL and relevant skills. I think all the recent/current fuss about students/graduates with NO work experience being unemployable or just simply unable to get work speaks volumes.

IMO

 

[TotallySport]

So what will you be doing and how will you fund it?

 

[td2011]

I understand why you feel like giving education a miss but there are many life experiences to learn from further education. You may be a lot smarter and wiser than I was at the age of 18 but looking back I was clueless. The cost of further education has risen to sickening amounts but you need to think of what you could gain from further study. Work for someone else for a while to gain some experience.

 

[Indivijewelistic]

What business are you starting up?

 

[BizGurl]

I understand why you feel like giving education a miss but there are many life experiences to learn from further education. You may be a lot smarter and wiser than I was at the age of 18 but looking back I was clueless. The cost of further education has risen to sickening amounts but you need to think of what you could gain from further study. Work for someone else for a while to gain some experience.

No kidding. When I did my HND it was £1200 for each year, £2400 in total, plus a top-up degree year which was just over £3k...in all, my entire degree was MUCH less than what students will now pay per year, and this time, prospects aren't as great as yesteryear.
If you do continue studying, particularly at higher education level, please study something that will actually be of use in the future (as back-up, if you intend to start your own business), i.e. the medical field, sciences etc, and not Puppetry Art or Knitting Studies...(nothing wrong with them if you have money to burn though )

 

[thecyclingartist]

I'm going to second the advice of getting a job while starting up. You can do both.

Now I love academia and studying but understand some don't. My brother was one of those people. So my advice is mainly to remember that you can always go back! There is no right way.

So if education isn't for you right now, focus on getting some good experience that will give you practical skills. That's where getting a job will be useful. Even the mundane things - office skills, admin, speaking to customers, ordering stock, receipts - you will be better at with practical experience. I've had a lot of menial jobs in weird things but each and every one taught me something I can apply now in my business. Even working in McDonald's at age 15. Plus it will help you decide what things you like and hate, in order to choose your own business.

And you will find as you go along there are bits you do need to learn. There are lots of local classes around, maybe evening, maybe part-time, maybe just at a community group. So keep those in mind as alternatives. You say you're leaving school but there are non-school ways to learn a lot too. Or maybe in a couple years you'll change your mind and want to go to uni. That's ok too. As an example, my C-D average brother joined the military straight from school at 17 - he hated it, btw, and came out with no real world skills. But at 22 afterwards he knew he wanted to work with cars. So he did. While doing it he went back to uni night school for automotive and business courses, starting about when he was 25. Discovered that he LOVED studying then, when he knew what he wanted and it was his choices. It took him a long time to finish (about 10 years) because he did it on and off while working and running his own business. So another option.

I'm American and have about £50K in student loans for 3 years of postgrad in the UK. So I completely understand the fear of loans!

Just keep an open mind as you go along. Life is long and it's a journey and you're young, and U-turns are allowed.

Tina.

 

[chrissylogue20]

I have a par time job at the minute working as a milkman lol, i was london at the junior apprentice for bbc, for very far in the stages aswell. So many good benefits working to yourself.

I have a couple of brilliant ideas that im going to start very soon

Consider buying an Iphone 4 this month think it could be a benefit for ill be starting a business online soon!

 

[KateCB]

Sorry, but from your level of written English, I think you would be better off staying in school and learning how to write English before attempting to start a business here - if you can't communicate effectively, then you don't really stand a chance unless you are selling apples on the market.

Once you can communicate, then find something that interests you - buying an Iphone doesn't put you in business; I have been in business for over 30 years and don't have an Iphone......but I have 4 businesses......

 

[chrissylogue20]

Kate your so wrong, lots of business people have Dyslexia.

i didnt say i would be in business by buying an iphone, wonder about the different apps that are helpful, you can send money through paypal on your iphone.

theres nothing wrong way selling apples at a market some of the best fruit shops the owners started in markets!

 

[KateCB]

Definately nothing wrong with selling apples on the market, I have interests in this too.....Dyslexia yes, I have some very valuable staff with word dyslexia, and a son with number Dyslexia who is doing very well in his chosen career, however your post does not show dyslexia, just a poor grasp of sentance formation.....

As for the iPhone, you made it sound that you were buying and iphone because you were going to be in business and that made everything OK - just pointing out that the phone 'does not the business make' it the communication behind the phone.

I applaud you wanting to start your own business, but like others have said, it isn't easy, and you could start this part time whilst still improving your education - perhaps a business management course, or an HND in business and finance which would help you when you were ready to go full time with your own.

What we have all said I think, is that you shouldn't throw away what is relateively 'cheap' education - doing it later is fine, however it costs a hell of a lot more once you leave the standard education system as a teenager and then try and catch up as an 'adult learner'.

 

[virtuallysorted]

I'm going to buck the trend here - and say that education is utterly useless if it's not inspiring the person to use it. It sounds very much like being in formal education is switching Chrissy off from any sort of learning. Which is a shame, because once I realised that some education was actually useful in the real world, you couldn't stop me! But so many of our teachers and the system itself is built around non-jobs and non-practical applications. i.e. getting qualifications for the sake of them.

Chrissy - what would you need in order to run your business? Could you structure your learning around starting up, rather than stopping altogether? So for example, if you want to learn about iphone apps, could you volunteer for work experience somewhere where they specialise in this type of business?

I'm generally of the opinion that it's better for someone else to pay for you to learn, rather than paying it yourself - and a lot cheaper!

 

[TotallySport]

I'm going to buck the trend here - and say that education is utterly useless if it's not inspiring the person to use it. It sounds very much like being in formal education is switching Chrissy off from any sort of learning. Which is a shame, because once I realised that some education was actually useful in the real world, you couldn't stop me! But so many of our teachers and the system itself is built around non-jobs and non-practical applications. i.e. getting qualifications for the sake of them.

Chrissy - what would you need in order to run your business? Could you structure your learning around starting up, rather than stopping altogether? So for example, if you want to learn about iphone apps, could you volunteer for work experience somewhere where they specialise in this type of business?

I'm generally of the opinion that it's better for someone else to pay for you to learn, rather than paying it yourself - and a lot cheaper!

He/She had an apprentership with the BBC (do you know how many people would bite their arm off for that), its hardly formal education, and he gave that up to become a milkman. Plus he thinks buying an Iphone will help him in business. Plus he cannot even answer the questions he's been asked so people can offer advice, DWP springs to mind. (although i do agree with you post)

 

[KateCB]

Caroline I'm shocked!

"I'm generally of the opinion that it's better for someone else to pay for you to learn, rather than paying it yourself - and a lot cheaper!"

So the employer teaches you your trade, PAYS for your further education, and you then walk away leaving them with nothing but the bill?

Thats why employers have contracts that state you must work for them for X number of years after the course finishes or pay them back, too many people taking 'free' education through employers for granted!

I don't think you are bucking the trend to be honest, education isn't for everyone, not everyone learns the way lecturers want them too its true, but to start a business in this legislative day and age without some kind or training in business is very risky, and lets face it, owning your own is risky anyway, so anything you can learn, be it through formal education whilst it is still available, through work experience or general, determined research has to be worth it.

I have to say that I have probably learned more from DOING rather tha classroom based learning, but at least because I HAD some classroom based business 'learning' I was able to fall back on it, use it, refer to it, and at times discard it as real world and 'technically' don't always work/go together anyway!

 

[virtuallysorted]

Caroline I'm shocked!

"I'm generally of the opinion that it's better for someone else to pay for you to learn, rather than paying it yourself - and a lot cheaper!"

So the employer teaches you your trade, PAYS for your further education, and you then walk away leaving them with nothing but the bill?

That's why employers have contracts that state you must work for them for X number of years after the course finishes or pay them back, too many people taking 'free' education through employers for granted!

That's the risk which you take when you hire someone - but you usually have the benefit of that person learning skills on the job and contributing to the business until they grow their own wings. And people do learn new skills and outgrow companies - it's just a fact of life. If they didn't, they wouldn't make particularly good employees.

If you have invested heavily in someone's education, of course you would have a clause citing redemption of training fees. But most work based knowledge is not a tangible cost - it's the time of the other workers showing them what to do. What I'm suggesting is not that he goes in, steals all their unique knowledge and sets up a rival company, but that he spends a few years learning the ropes, figuring out if this is something he wants to do and if there is potential to make money in starting up.

He/She had an apprenticeship with the BBC (do you know how many people would bite their arm off for that), its hardly formal education, and he gave that up to become a milkman. Plus he thinks buying an Iphone will help him in business. Plus he cannot even answer the questions he's been asked so people can offer advice, DWP springs to mind. (although i do agree with you post)

Even more of a reason to go work for someone else - anyone with such a short attention span won't make it through the tough times!

 

[KateCB]

Agreed, if formal education is not their 'thing' then a few years training in work would give him basic knowledge.

I know that employees move on, and that staff training new staff isn't considered 'training', however it just seems like an 'employee' mentality to expect the employer to pay for your future and you just say 'thanks and Bye'! Thisis for more complicated training courses, but I have seen it abused so many times for MA/Phd courses that it really annoys me!

 

[Estimator]

I'm not following this thread very well!
What does this mean? :|

i was london at the junior apprentice for bbc, for very far in the stages aswell. So many good benefits working to yourself.

 

[the king]

...lifted from today's Thought for the Day (which usually winds me up - but today 't was Lionel!):

if you manage to achieve a Masters in say politics and economics then at least you'll know why you haven't got a job.
​

Granted some people are not academically-inclined - and one often finds these are the ones with the better people-skills; however... there's still an awful lot of (or a lot of awful?) people who quite clearly have neither.

It is dangerous to assume that perhaps just coz you did in the past that you can again pick up a job whenever you feel so inclined; and whilst it is indeed true that some of the best euro-bond and FX traders hailed from the market, at the moment virtually every opportunity option is in decline.

Life's a gamble, so maximising one's opportunities should surely be the best bet to having the option of choosing how to spend it?

 

[TheBlogshop]

Great points here so far and even if you've read them all already, go back and read them all again - nothing like having too much information to base a decision on.

If I were in your shoes, I'd get yourself a job in an environment where you're actively working with others and develop your own business on the side.

I left school with a decent education, enrolled into college and within three months left because it just wasn't for me. I secured a place on a Business and Administration apprenticeship and from then on I've worked ever since, without looking back for more than a few seconds once.

There's no doubt that it's been difficult and challenging at times - for well over a year I was working 70+ hours a week - but I can't think of one business-related time or incident that's happened where I can say "well that was useless". I've learnt from everything I've done.

Although my aim has always been to work for myself, I strongly believe I couldn't have got to the point I am today without carrying out a few years of work first - I didn't learn a great deal from it that has had a direct impact on my actual business today, but the skills I did learn, such as how to write a report in a commercial format right through to communicating in the expected way with professionals from organizations of all different sizes, have been invaluable.

I'm all for people showing some entrepreneurial spirit and setting up a business on their own, but I would always, always, always advise that you have at least some relevant experience that you can utilize and draw upon first.

 

[Stroh]

I understand where some of you are coming from, saying that education is almost pointless as its so expensive now, and it doesn't justify the cost. However, I'm 18 in 6th form (well technically just left!) and doing my A levels. I've applied for Uni and as long as I get the grades (which im sure I will), I'll be going to Uni.

I went to Dr Challoner's Grammar School (one of the best Grammar Schools in the UK), and from what all the teachers and advisers have said, the main statement is that you should stay in education.

With unemployment high and the state of the economy, it's best to get good qualifications now, and hope that in 4/5 years time when you come out, the economy will be in a better state and you will have a greater chance of being employed.

My dad is employing people who have been to top Universities, and they are doing nothing. He has a girl from Cambridge literally number crunching. If you don't have any qualifications it is very unlikely that you will get a decent job.

Another thing to point out, my mum told me about someone who was very depressed as he had been told that he couldn't be 'promoted' anymore as he didn't have a degree. He had been in the field of work for 10 years and was better than the new employees who were graduates with a degree, but they simply stopped him as he didn't have a degree.

This shows that you pretty much need a degree to get a good job, UNLESS you go down the entrepreneurial route which I also hope to do, whilst at Uni - another point that the contacts you'll make and resources available will help significantly in starting a business (I'm doing a Business Management + Entrepreneur module - yes you can't teach entrepreurship, but they basically help you with an idea you have, and will help you get going - turning it into a business - however, you can refuse their help and funding).

However, with uni fees increasing from 3.3K to 9K next year, you want to get into education now, otherwise you'll be left with an extra 20K or so debt.

I also want to start up and run my own business, however I feel that will be much harder without a degree also. Especially trying to get a loan; with a degree you will be much more credible, and as I mentioned, the resources and help available will make it much easier.

 

[Cohesive Computing]

...
With unemployment high and the state of the economy, it's best to get good qualifications now, and hope that in 4/5 years time when you come out, the economy will be in a better state and you will have a greater chance of being employed.
...

The economy may well be in a better shape by then, but if the graduate to graduate vacancy ratio remains high (currently 2 to 1), graduates may find they are over-qualified to flip burgers at their nearest fast food outlet, if that's the only thing available.

 

[Stroh]

Thats a fair point, but in the long-term, it is almost certainly beneficial to have a degree.

 

[chrissylogue20]

All in good information people, I'm working part-time at the moment and have a good wage to get me start of with a business, i have a couple of brilliant idea's, i've now left education and my da is strongly proud that im going to work for myself and he's happy if happy, also if things dont work out i can join college nxt year in setpember.

If things do work out i could be turning around £30k a year enough money to keep me going, and have lots of time to spend on my hobbies, like golf and big poker tournaments

Thanks for all the Advice some good stuff!

 

[KateCB]

I feel sorry for the man who can't get a promotion because he doesn't have a piece of paper that says his memory is good or that he wrote a good dissertation 10 years ago; its discrimination.

I employ people who can do the job, regardless of academic qualifications - there are some good graduates out there, however there are some terrible ones too - no common or life sense.

I know of a Masters Degree holder who can't get a job as she is overqualified and of course under experienced in treal life work,except for bar work that she did to keep her going through her degree course, and to be honest a lot of graduates are great if it is 'as the book says' but put them in a real; life work environment and they don't cope well.

There are good and bad points to both having and not having further, formal education, but so many people leave school at 16 - 18yrs now and can't string a sentance together, have such poor spelling that it is embarrassing at interview time, and have no idea what 'Title' on an application form means - one guy, a graduate in garphic design, told me that he didn't have a title, he was just plain Mr.........

 

[Indivijewelistic]

I have a son who is so dyslexic I was advised that he was unlikely to ever pass an exam, but I got behind him and insisted he stayed in his peer group, in mainstream education and he came out of school with 8 GCSE's (all be it with the assistance of readers and writers). Those qualifications got him into college as a Motorcycle Technician and this month he had an interview on the strength of those qualifications. So for me it is a 50/50 split, part education/part on the job learned skills but I think the further you move away from the skills required to sell apples on a stall - the more qualifications you may need to even get the interview, let alone the job.

And before anyone brings up the apples - my Mum ran a fruit and veg stall on Shepphers Bush Market - brilliant stall holder, fantastic Mum but after she had us she was unable to get a job doing anything but cleaning at a couple of bob an hour - and that is the real world.