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PaulB what you say about the earning potential of Uni is based on old historical figures and relate to the days when very few went there. With so many now going this impact will be considerably watered down. Some of the highest earning people I know actually never went to Uni, including my highest earning client, and two (like me) left school at 15 with no formal qualifications at all....
I now have a degree level qualification myself but I do resent having had to study for it because it provides little or no added benefit for me, my business or my clients and has cost me a lot of time and money for no reason other than to tick some boxes for the regulator. It is incredibly difficult to do when running a business and, I have to say, I did the minimum amount of study needed to get the points, it was all I have time for. My 22 years plus experience and good regulatory record count for nothing in this and if I had not done the exams, on the 1st January 2013, I would suddenly no longer be able to do the job I have been doing for all these years. A lot of older IFAs are leaving the industry as a result I hope it will at least provide me with some compensation for the last couple of years extra and often pointless study!!!
I have said all along - personality, drive, character are all better 'qualifications' than some bit of paper. Of course some jobs do require advanced and specialist education doctors, scientists and so on but many courses, no. Someone with a business degree may know nothing about real-life business and may not be able to run a whelk stall while there are many people running good businesses without a qualification to their name.
We need only see how a certain forumite cannot even be considered as a river warden to see what complete over-the-top nonsense qualification requirements are these days. This has to change a common sense must get back into the equation. Local authorities and government departments are among the worse offenders.