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Mr Romanov Saviour of HMFC

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Mr Romanov Saviour of HMFC
We could be brothers by the sounds of things.

 

Seperated at birth perhaps?

 

You being the uglier brother of course.

 

I've always wanted a brother.

 

Just a shame he turns out to be a gay with bad AIDS. :(

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I'm in the same boat as you AP.

 

Like Cosa, I can't bear the thought of working in an office for the rest of my days doing a job I hate and working with people who I despise. The idea of going back to college/uni has been going round in my head for a while but I've got the added stress of owning my flat and I've no idea what I'd do with it if I decided to apply for a course and got in.

 

Could I sell it in this "tough economic time"? Would I be better renting it? Could I afford to still live in it and work part time? All this kind of nonsense is preventing me actually making the decision of "aye I'm going to apply".

 

I'd love to just be able to drop it all and go off and do my thing at college/uni. Got next to no idea what to study though (well I've one idea).

 

Would you be going back for an undergraduate course as well, AS? Without knowing the details, I'd guess renting might be a better bet - but FFS man, you've got to give it a go. You have a serious way with words, and would have a ball doing what you really want to do, I'd have thought.

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Generic Username
I've always wanted a brother.

 

Just a shame he turns out to be a gay with bad AIDS. :(

 

I did try getting it the good way but to no avail.

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Hehehe: I did wonder! I underachieved badly at school for various reasons, and only got my academic confidence back at UEA on my undergraduate degree. Nothing unusual in you having taken a while working out what you want to do either: I think it's ridiculous that we're supposed to know by the time we're 18, or even 16. Indeed, it's precisely because so few are privileged enough to follow their passions in their career that there's so much misery in the workplace.

 

I thought that said UEFA. Come to think of it should take a year or two out and spend thousands getting the proper coaching badges and try and get a job as a professional manager. Real life FM.

 

I may have gone of on a tangent.:o

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Patrick Bateman

Another tip I have is to email professors and lecturers directly if you have questions that need answered. I know it sounds obvious, but most inquiries tend to be directed at folk who'll just pass on stuff straight from their Uni's prospectus.

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I thought that said UEFA. Come ot think of it should take a year or two out and spend thousands getting the proper coaching badges and try and get a job as a professional manager. Real life FM.

 

I may have gone of tangent.:o

 

I wish! Professional manager? I wouldn't last 5 minutes. "Show us yer medals, fatty - show us yer medals!"

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Yeah, I'm sure that I'd be fine, it is just a bit of a thought to be going back there without having the same sense as last time that most people were in more or less the same boat as me in terms of leaving home for the first time, living in a strange city, etc. (although even at that I'd left school at the end of fifth year and worked for a year before uni, so I wasn't even as badly off as some).

 

Not sure if I'd be able to get a loan initially as I still owe them a fair chunk of the last one back, but I've got a bit saved up and reckon that if I went to Heriot Watt I could probably fit uni in with working more or less full time (albeit probably in a fairly ****e job), so wouldn't necessarily need the extra funding.

 

You would still get a loan as you need to pay it back, its the "bursary" part of the funding which wouldnt be covered (i.e the course fees and non repayable funding). This is only for any period already studied, so say you did first year, your second first year would be funded out of your own pocket but later years you would get the normal support. You would probably get enough of a loan to cover the fee's, you would just need to find another way for the living costs.

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I wish! Professional manager? I wouldn't last 5 minutes. "Show us yer medals, fatty - show us yer medals!"

 

That is when you would do a Derek Adams and just start throwing punches.

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Another tip I have is to email professors and lecturers directly if you have questions that need answered. I know it sounds obvious, but most inquiries tend to be directed at folk who'll just pass on stuff straight from their Uni's prospectus.

 

An especially wise move when applying for a postgraduate degree. My supervisor here doesn't have email access (he lives in as well as studies the eighteenth century), so I wrote to him. And given his penchant for handwritten letters (he only corresponded with me here by leaving me constant notes in my pigeon hole, eg. "Dear Mr Lawson, I shall be around all day. Come and find me in my office"), that was almost a blunder!

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That is when you would do a Derek Adams and just start throwing punches.

 

I was delighted to read that even Bobby Robson used to be partial to the odd dressing room punch-up while at Ipswich. How times change. Fergie is surely one of the last of a dying breed:

 

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mDCXn7tNZLE&feature=related

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Walter Payton
Certainly seems a wise move to me. I dunno how it works in Scotland, but as it's an undergraduate degree, funding shouldn't be a major problem, I'd have thought? I'm a bit puzzled how you've not been to uni already, to be honest: you're obviously smart enough.

 

That's not a bit of "uni-snobbery" is it Shaun, suggesting that smart people have necessarily gone to University? I'd think (and would hope to be included in the number) there were lots of smart people that posted on this website that have chosen to work (or gain other life experience) after leaving school instead of looking for further qualifications.

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That's not a bit of "uni-snobbery" is it Shaun, suggesting that smart people have necessarily gone to University? I'd think (and would hope to be included in the number) there were lots of smart people that posted on this website that have chosen to work (or gain other life experience) after leaving school instead of looking for further qualifications.

 

Not at all, and I completely agree with you. Far too many people go to uni already, and end up with near worthless degrees in an over-saturated graduate market, meaning they're often left having to pay for a postgrad course too in order to have any chance of getting ahead. What we need are vastly more vocational courses at school, and an end to the ridiculous snobbery which views them as less worthy than traditional academic qualifications: in many cases, they're far more worthy and useful, in truth.

 

In AP (and maybe audioslave's?) cases though, it's clear they've come to a bit of a crossroads, and are disillusioned with what they're currently doing. Hence what I'd recommend - it's certainly not right for everyone, though.

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Carl Weathers

Just to back up what most people are saying. I left school and started at a large investments company at 17. Lasted 4 years but gradually hated it more and more. Didn't know what to do with myself as I was never really that interested in studying at school, although I left few highers and an A-level.

 

Decided to do a business degree at Uni'. It has turned out to be the best decision I've ever made. I enjoy the course, learned a fair bit, met loads of great friends and had the chance to spend a year at another company which worked out well. Currently into my last term and completing my disseration on football and marketing - not a bad choice imo!

 

Even if my degree turns out to be 'near worthless'* the experience has been anything but. In my opinion you should definitely give it a go.

 

 

*Just joking Shaun.:tongue:

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Just to back up what most people are saying. I left school and started at a large investments company at 17. Lasted 4 years but gradually hated it more and more. Didn't know what to do with myself as I was never really that interested in studying at school, although I left few highers and an A-level.

 

Decided to do a business degree at Uni'. It has turned out to be the best decision I've ever made. I enjoy the course, learned a fair bit, met loads of great friends and had the chance to spend a year at another company which worked out well. Currently into my last term and completing my disseration on football and marketing - not a bad choice imo!

 

Even if my degree turns out to be 'near worthless'* the experience has been anything but. In my opinion you should definitely give it a go.

 

 

*Just joking Shaun.:tongue:

 

Ah - but your degree is vocational and highly relevant to the modern world. Cool dissertation too! It's when it's non-vocational that people hit trouble, which is inevitable in a world dependent on private finance. You're dead right about the experience though: my Masters was the best year of my life, largely because I mixed with and learnt from people as strong when it came to life skills as academic ones.

 

Ultimately, university is about helping us understand not just our chosen studies, but ourselves, others and the world around us. Contrary to the popular myth, it's actually all about real life experience, especially on a social level.

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Carl Weathers
Ah - but your degree is vocational and highly relevant to the modern world. Cool dissertation too! It's when it's non-vocational that people hit trouble, which is inevitable in a world dependent on private finance. You're dead right about the experience though: my Masters was the best year of my life, largely because I mixed with and learnt from people as strong when it came to life skills as academic ones.

 

Ultimately, university is about helping us understand not just our chosen studies, but ourselves, others and the world around us. Contrary to the popular myth, it's actually all about real life experience, especially on a social level.

 

 

When I was working in finance I found a lot of the top people there had done degrees in History of Art down in Oxford and Cambridge! I can't see how that would prepare them for the zany world of Investments but there you go.

 

I couldn't agree more with the part in bold.

 

Even if people don't fancy Uni', they should at least take a year out to go traveling or doing something interesting. Something that will test them a bit. I wouldn't recommend working in the same environment all your puff.

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PresidentRomanov
Ah - but your degree is vocational and highly relevant to the modern world. Cool dissertation too! It's when it's non-vocational that people hit trouble, which is inevitable in a world dependent on private finance. You're dead right about the experience though: my Masters was the best year of my life, largely because I mixed with and learnt from people as strong when it came to life skills as academic ones.

 

Ultimately, university is about helping us understand not just our chosen studies, but ourselves, others and the world around us. Contrary to the popular myth, it's actually all about real life experience, especially on a social level.

 

What a heap of ****e :laugh:

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What a heap of ****e :laugh:

 

The traditional "What me? I have no chip on my shoulder!" response.

 

:laugh:

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What a heap of ****e :laugh:

 

Is that based on experiencing university yourself, oh great one? :mw_rolleyes:

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Age is no barrier. Just as long as people go back into study with their eyes open. My wife will graduate this year at age 40, after 4 full-time years at Queen Maragaret Uni. I just completed a distance learning PgDip from the University of London and I'm 48. In both our cases these have been to make career changes. It's paid off for me, and I hope it will for my better half.

 

There have been frustrations, and sacrifices have been made - not always willingly at the time - finances, family, leisure-time ... have all taken a hit. On the other hand, better to live with no regrets ... we just didn't want to look back and say that we didn't give it a shot. So all power to those who sign up to do it :thumbs_up:

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Smart poofs with decent salaries.

 

Suck it up. :tongue:

 

:laugh:

 

I left school at 16, went straight into work and I'm on a ****load.

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If your thinking about Stirling Uni you should contact them cause they do a night time course which I think your only in maybe 4-6 hours and if you pass the course they will give you a place at stirling uni no questions asked!! And Stirling is around an hour on the train so you could do that and keep working so you save money for when you start uni rather chucking your job in and going to college!!

 

As for funding go to SAAS, your only classed as an independent when you turn 25, or have you own kids, or can prove that you have been living independent of your parents for 3 years!!

 

I went back to uni at 22 and stayed in halls... went into mature student halls was kinda worried that everyone would be in their 30s or 40s in my halls but they weren't everyone was between 19 and 24!! One of the best things about mature student halls was that you didn't get the 4am fire alarms going off!!

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:laugh:

 

I left school at 16, went straight into work and I'm on a ****load.

 

Fair play, I just don't get the animosity towards students from those who didn't go to university.

 

Of course you can make a decent career without doing it, but it's not like you can deny it can be a good way of making a big step up for a lot of folk.

 

anyway, given your general demeanour on here I can only presume you're happy with your lot. ;)

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Fair play, I just don't get the animosity towards students from those who didn't go to university.

 

Of course you can make a decent career without doing it, but it's not like you can deny it can be a good way of making a big step up for a lot of folk.

 

anyway, given your general demeanour on here I can only presume you're happy with your lot. ;)

 

It's even more ridiculous when you consider how much students contribute to the local economy. It was bad enough that relations were fraught between students and locals in Norwich (an alarming number were beaten up by neanderthal yokels during my time at UEA), but it's no different in Oxford! Yet if it wasn't for the university, Oxford would be an anonymous village deep in the heart of the Thames Valley.

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:laugh:

 

I left school at 16, went straight into work and I'm on a ****load.

 

We can't all be successful rentboys. :tongue:

 

Being a student is good for the soul.

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Mr Romanov Saviour of HMFC
If your thinking about Stirling Uni you should contact them cause they do a night time course which I think your only in maybe 4-6 hours and if you pass the course they will give you a place at stirling uni no questions asked!! And Stirling is around an hour on the train so you could do that and keep working so you save money for when you start uni rather chucking your job in and going to college!!

 

As for funding go to SAAS, your only classed as an independent when you turn 25, or have you own kids, or can prove that you have been living independent of your parents for 3 years!!

 

I went back to uni at 22 and stayed in halls... went into mature student halls was kinda worried that everyone would be in their 30s or 40s in my halls but they weren't everyone was between 19 and 24!! One of the best things about mature student halls was that you didn't get the 4am fire alarms going off!!

 

Interesting stuff mate. Was it hard to get a place in the halls? I never even knew there was mature student halls!

 

I like the sound of that course but I guess I've missed it for this year?

 

The problem is if I started it in September instead of college then it would mean 5 years studying instead of the 4 I am planning.

 

If it's possible to do it before September then great.

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Im not exactly sure how it works but I worked with someone in the summer who got her place through doing that course at stirling uni and my best friend is presently doing the night course but no idea how she applied for it... but im sure it starts in september!!

 

I know it sounds a drag, that it would be five years but I went to Aberdeen uni straight into second year and even stayed in halls there but found it hard to make friends in my course as everyone had kinda made their wee groups of friends so found it hard to break in... but maybe im just a bit shy!!

 

But had to drop out of that course (had a good reason) and when I went back to uni and started in first year found it a lot easier making friends and it is really important to know folk in your course cause they can really help you out especially if you miss the odd lecture :mw_rolleyes:

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Sheriff Fatman
It's even more ridiculous when you consider how much students contribute to the local economy. It was bad enough that relations were fraught between students and locals in Norwich (an alarming number were beaten up by neanderthal yokels during my time at UEA), but it's no different in Oxford! Yet if it wasn't for the university, Oxford would be an anonymous village deep in the heart of the Thames Valley.

 

No it wouldn't. Yes, the University is what the city is best known for but it has never been a one trick pony town. I can trace my family back to the 16th century in Oxford and not one member of my family has ever worked for any of the colleges, but have still managed to make pretty good livings.

 

As to the OP, go for it. I decided to go back to studying the year before last and have never regretted the decision. I took the HND route, as I didn't really plan to go to university, but I am enjoying the subject and so have applied to go into the final year of the degree course. Being a 40 year old student did take a bit of getting used to, but it is worth it.

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You would still get a loan as you need to pay it back, its the "bursary" part of the funding which wouldnt be covered (i.e the course fees and non repayable funding). This is only for any period already studied, so say you did first year, your second first year would be funded out of your own pocket but later years you would get the normal support. You would probably get enough of a loan to cover the fee's, you would just need to find another way for the living costs.

 

Wrong. You get your fees paid if you drop out at any stage in first year.

 

I just dropped out of Stirling University after three months after absolutely hating it. I just can't live in a small place. It's quite cool in a way that everybody knows each other, but I'd much rather fully enjoy what I do, rather than half-heartily "waste" four years of my life. I'm working for a few months, hopefully going to Camp America, and I've just got into Strathclyde next year.

 

It's just the next few months which are going to be absolutely hell... I guess you could say it's an ends to a means though.

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PresidentRomanov
Is that based on experiencing university yourself, oh great one? :mw_rolleyes:

 

That's the kind of response that proves me right.

 

Anyone who thinks going to university is a pre requisite to gaining some kind of spiritual self satisfaction, is totally up his own arse :laugh:

 

I also left school at 16, and probably have as good a job as you're ever likely to have.

 

I can also afford a telly.

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That's the kind of response that proves me right.

 

Anyone who thinks going to university is a pre requisite to gaining some kind of spiritual self satisfaction, is totally up his own arse :laugh:

 

I also left school at 16, and probably have as good a job as you're ever likely to have.

 

I can also afford a telly.

 

Good morning Mr Bum! Hmm. So when I have certain skills, you tell me I couldn't possibly have gained them without 'real life experience' (of which I have plenty in any case). And when you comment on university, you're somehow qualified to dismiss the testimony of myself and others without having experienced it yourself? I see.

 

Good for you that you've made such a success of yourself: university is no prerequisite at all. But it is a hugely valuable experience for an awful lot of people - something you're desperate to dismiss because, well, you're prejudiced. As usual. :o

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We can't all be successful rentboys. :tongue:

 

Being a student is good for the soul.

 

Apparently you need a big wanger to be a successful rentboy Dave :(

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PresidentRomanov
Good morning Mr Bum! Hmm. So when I have certain skills, you tell me I couldn't possibly have gained them without 'real life experience' (of which I have plenty in any case). And when you comment on university, you're somehow qualified to dismiss the testimony of myself and others without having experienced it yourself? I see.

 

Good for you that you've made such a success of yourself: university is no prerequisite at all. But it is a hugely valuable experience for an awful lot of people - something you're desperate to dismiss because, well, you're prejudiced. As usual. :o

 

The one skill you don't gain at university, is the one that installs the knowledge that you get nowhere without working hard for it.

 

A point that's been more than proved by yourself endlessly posting on here, when you're supposed to be working.

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The one skill you don't gain at university, is the one that installs the knowledge that you get nowhere without working hard for it.

 

A point that's been more than proved by yourself endlessly posting on here, when you're supposed to be working.

 

I couldn't agree more. I do work through the night, to be fair - but you still have a point.

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That's the kind of response that proves me right.

 

Anyone who thinks going to university is a pre requisite to gaining some kind of spiritual self satisfaction, is totally up his own arse :laugh:

 

I also left school at 16, and probably have as good a job as you're ever likely to have.

 

I can also afford a telly.

 

It taught me how to cook, how to live with people you wouldnt normally choose to live with, how to deal with annoying landlords, rent, flat contracts, how to time manage between working and studying, i also had opportunity to go abroad and it let me play football at a decent standard for four more years. Loads of other stuff.

 

I know lots of people from my school who are 21-22 and still living with there parents, that would drive me banana's. i feel im much more ready to decide what career i want now and i reckon im more mature and independent as well.

 

All this can be taught without uni, but uni seems to force you into doing all these things at a young age.

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That's the kind of response that proves me right.

 

Anyone who thinks going to university is a pre requisite to gaining some kind of spiritual self satisfaction, is totally up his own arse :laugh:

 

I also left school at 16, and probably have as good a job as you're ever likely to have.

 

I can also afford a telly.

 

You do have a bit of a point.

 

Although for many, going to Uni is a route into learning certain life skills.

 

The superiority many think it affords them over those without qualifications is very often misplaced.

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You do have a bit of a point.

 

Although for many, going to Uni is a route into learning certain life skills.

 

The superiority many think it affords them over those without qualifications is very often misplaced.

 

From the man with Dr. in his username. :laugh:

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From the man with Dr. in his username. :laugh:

 

Exactly.

 

Some are more deserving than others of course.

 

Im glad the irony did not go unnoticed.

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PresidentRomanov
It taught me how to cook, how to live with people you wouldnt normally choose to live with, how to deal with annoying landlords, rent, flat contracts, how to time manage between working and studying, i also had opportunity to go abroad and it let me play football at a decent standard for four more years. Loads of other stuff.

 

I know lots of people from my school who are 21-22 and still living with there parents, that would drive me banana's. i feel im much more ready to decide what career i want now and i reckon im more mature and independent as well.

 

All this can be taught without uni, but uni seems to force you into doing all these things at a young age.

 

I moved into a flat when I was 18 and done all these things while working in a shipyard doing an apprenticeship, with people that teach you more about life than some chinless wonder in a university.

 

The fact that you think only students can do this, kind of proves my point about their misplaced superior attitudes though.

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Carl Weathers
I moved into a flat when I was 18 and done all these things while working in a shipyard doing an apprenticeship, with people that teach you more about life than some chinless wonder in a university.

 

The fact that you think only students can do this, kind of proves my point about their misplaced superior attitudes though.

 

I don't think anybody has said that they think students are superior. Students past and present have just said what a good experience it was for them.

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Ultimately, university is about helping us understand not just our chosen studies, but ourselves, others and the world around us. Contrary to the popular myth, it's actually all about real life experience, especially on a social level.

 

Like anything, it depends on what you make it in terms of life experience. I've had graduates come into my work who were totally clueless in terms of the workplace and seemed to have lived in a wee bubble for the past four years, but you get the exact same with people who do leave school to go straight into a job and work, for instance, in an office.

 

It all depends on the individual and the choices that they make.

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I moved into a flat when I was 18 and done all these things while working in a shipyard doing an apprenticeship, with people that teach you more about life than some chinless wonder in a university.

 

The fact that you think only students can do this, kind of proves my point about their misplaced superior attitudes though.

 

Settle, it's not a competition. I was considering doing an apprenticeship at school and looked into it alot, but i made the decision to go to uni.

 

i wouldnt of posted if i knew people were going to make the assumption that i think this makes me 'superior' in any way.

 

What makes you think that you learn more doing an apprenticeship in a shipyard than from 'some chinless wonder in a university' ?

 

This wouldnt be a Misplaced superior attitude?

 

You learn different things from every different situation in life.

 

Like i said before, i apologise if my post seemed ignorant, i was just giving my personal experience but it seems to of upset you a little. :(

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I'm at a slight tangent here, but just something I noticed in The Independent tonight. Its comparing how UK cities might fare in the recession.

 

Bristol, Leeds, Edinburgh and London are put on "amber alert". They will "face significant employment losses" because of their vulnerability to the crisis in the financial sector, but can count on skilled populations and a range of industries to help them recover. In Edinburgh, 44 per cent of working residents have degree-level qualifications ? the highest proportion in the country.

 

Just an observation...

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Konrad von Carstein

I left school and started an apprenticeship in Ferranti (showing my age there) used to have the opinion that all people who went to Uni were complete [email protected] after many years "on the tools" i did a mechanical engineering HNC followed by a business admin HNC, both at night school and got a job in the commercial department dealing with contracts and Clients etc.

 

This resulted in me working with people who had been to university and my opinion quickly changed...I earn decent money in my current job and i like it but i have just fallen into doing what i'm doing

 

I regret being such a wido in my last two years at Tyncastle High and not sticking in and getting the qualifications that may have allowed me to go to uni and study for a qualification in something that REALLY interested me.

 

So much so that at the ripe young age of 43 I'm considering an OU course (finances permitting).

 

Students in pubs are still arseholes tho:laugh:

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