The Virgin Guide to Courses for Careers: Choosing the Right Degree Course for Your Ideal Job

Education + Training

ISSN: 0040-0912

Article publication date: 1 April 2004

135

Citation

(2004), "The Virgin Guide to Courses for Careers: Choosing the Right Degree Course for Your Ideal Job", Education + Training, Vol. 46 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2004.00446cae.003

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


The Virgin Guide to Courses for Careers: Choosing the Right Degree Course for Your Ideal Job

The Virgin Guide to Courses for Careers: Choosing the Right Degree Course for Your Ideal Job

Piers DudgeonVirgin BooksLondon2003ISBN: 0 753 50777 3£14.99

University is expensive. Graduating students can already expect to enter the real world £15,000 in debt. This is likely to rise with the arrival of top-up fees. Job prospects after graduation are therefore becoming a key factor in the decision processes of those going to university. Of course, what a student learns at university is not necessarily training for a job. But some universities and courses are better at putting people into certain fields. Thus, we learn from this book (brought out by the team that produces the acclaimed Virgin Alternative Guide to British Universities) that those wishing to become a circus performer may do well to consider a two-year accelerated BA at the Central School of Speech and Drama, while most new zoo curators are graduates of agriculture or animal sciences faculties. As well as such listings by specific job, there are more general headings, such as health and education.

The guide succeeds in offering prospective students information on the universities that produce graduates who enter a specific field, perhaps helping students to narrow down the thousands of choices available to the handful they must put down on their UCAS form. The guide puts to rest myths about vocational courses being necessarily worse, or better, for a particular job. It highlights some of the smaller institutions that are disproportionately successful in a field and points out less demanding alternatives for people who do not think they will gain enough UCAS points.

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