Show me Your money

Soldato
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13 Dec 2010
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Is anyone else watching this program wondering 'Why the hell am I at university when I could earn £150k cleaning pipes!!'

Is there a demand enough for tradesmen to pay close to 100k for plumbers etc?

opinions :)
 
Is it about drainage by any chance?

A plumber told me once it was the easiest money going - and you don't need to be a plumber either.

If not, oops!
 
As my father used to say "The dirtiest job is the most paying job." Something to that extent. However, the bankers get paid ££££ and they sit in offices fixing rates o wait.
 
You need to be a good plumber, very good, or have a reputable firm to earn that kind of dough. Any sap can go to university these days

Take a gap year and try it yourself if it bothers you, I doubt you'll earn £100k
 
Cannot believe what these people earn! Far more than the doctor, head teacher and police Sargent I know and way above anyone in my work place.

Many of the non management guys working on the vans earn more than some managers at my work.
 
You need to be a good plumber, very good, or have a reputable firm to earn that kind of dough. Any sap can go to university these days

Take a gap year and try it yourself if it bothers you, I doubt you'll earn £100k

Have we completely devalued a degree in modern society? It seems like we've pushed degrees on too many people, and now most have become worthless.

Im not sure environmental consultancy jobs (the area I want to go into) pay anywhere near as well as these plumbers, albeit they live in London, so higher living costs.

Why aren't schools trying to promote trade jobs to kids more?
 
A word of warning, a friend of mine who is reasonably well qualified (2:1 in Economics & French with broad experience including working abroad) retrained in Plumbing and Electrics. He'd heard about all the $$$ you could make from it but he then discovered that where he lived (Wiltshire) things were a lot different. Round his way people just didn't charge hundreds of pounds to change an old biddies tap, and the only way you could make any sort of money was to run your own firm and screw over the apprentices (he was earning well below minimum wage, £15/day cash in hand plus a bit of expenses). Also quite a lot of back-scratching going on, local communites, not the easiest to make a living off when everyone knows somebody who knows somebody who can do your pipes.

Once qualified he did then move on to another firm supposedly a reasonable salaried rate however that was a bit of a stitchup, got laid off after 6 weeks or so it was basically a way of getting some people in to do a contract, pro-rata not that bad money but again showed it is quite a cutthroat business.

He also said in terms of the recession that caused a few problems because there weren't so many big projects going on, no phat government projects you could milk dry etc.

I think around London there is supposedly more money to be made but that of course carries with it more costs to actually work there.
 
Yes. Look at the degrees on offer and the grade of people doing them. Schools push everyone near enough to go to university, diluting the pool. I employ regularly and am aghast at the quality of some "IT" type grads, let alone those of the stupid degrees on offer

University should be for the intellectual crop imo
 
Yes. Look at the degrees on offer and the grade of people doing them. Schools push everyone near enough to go to university, diluting the pool. I employ regularly and am aghast at the quality of some "IT" type grads, let alone those of the stupid degrees on offer

University should be for the intellectual crop imo

Perhaps if some universities didn't have such lenient entry requirements, then only 'the intellectual crop' would be able to get in. However, universities want to make money so why would they do that? Obviously, Cambridge and most other Russell Group universities don't have this problem due to the high demand for a place by those with decent grades.

Anyway... I shall watch this on 4od when it's available, but £150k for cleaning pipes seems bizarre. But seeing as I have no real insight as to what's involved, I'll watch the programme first before making any statements.
 
I know this is a frequent debate on this forum so not looking to help this thread go off course, but just throwing something out there:

If degrees are becoming devalued due to the large numbers taking them, is there an argument to suggest that we should simply move the goalposts, i.e. take the "intellectual crop" from those with postgraduate level qualifications and above? So Masters becomes the new benchmark rather than university, a standard bachelors degree becomes the old A-levels etc? Or might one argue that we shouldn't be necessarily encouraging/requiring the elite to study until their mid-20s, we should get them into the workforce adding value earlier?

Again OT so apologies for this but I think there should be much more information/drive towards sandwich courses, make it the norm for people do do a year in industry if it is experience that employers are valuing so highly. When I chose my degree, I knew I definitely didn't want to do a year in industry (didn't like the sound of working, and was worried I'd lose contact with all my uni friends and would then come back for third year of study not knowing anyone). But if I had my time again I probably would have persued that option.
 
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I know this is a frequent debate on this forum so not looking to help this thread go off course, but just throwing something out there:

If degrees are becoming devalued due to the large numbers taking them, is there an argument to suggest that we should simply move the goalposts, i.e. take the "intellectual crop" from those with postgraduate level qualifications and above? So Masters becomes the new benchmark rather than university, a standard bachelors degree becomes the old A-levels etc? Or might one argue that we shouldn't be necessarily encouraging/requiring the elite to study until their mid-20s, we should get them into the workforce adding value earlier?

a phd is the cream of the crop, has been for decades.

professor and chair is probably the ultimate.
 
I know this is a frequent debate on this forum so not looking to help this thread go off course, but just throwing something out there:

If degrees are becoming devalued due to the large numbers taking them, is there an argument to suggest that we should simply move the goalposts, i.e. take the "intellectual crop" from those with postgraduate level qualifications and above? So Masters becomes the new benchmark rather than university, a standard bachelors degree becomes the old A-levels etc? Or might one argue that we shouldn't be necessarily encouraging/requiring the elite to study until their mid-20s, we should get them into the workforce adding value earlier?

Again OT so apologies for this but I think there should be much more information/drive towards sandwich courses, make it the norm for people do do a year in industry if it is experience that employers are valuing so highly. When I chose my degree, I knew I definitely didn't want to do a year in industry (didn't like the sound of working, and was worried I'd lose contact with all my uni friends and would then come back for third year of study not knowing anyone). But if I had my time again I probably would have persued that option.

More Sandwich courses would at least try to tackle the problem of graduate unemployment. Tbh there are far too many numbties on my course, I wonder how most of them cook their own dinner.
 
The richest bloke I know is a plumber. He has to turn down work and has a massive portfolio of properties thanks to the stupid amount of hours he's done over the past 20 years.
 
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