9% of kids from poor families go to university in Barnsley

I've got a cover all bases attitude towards the uni thing with my lads because I expect them to go and do their own thing at university but I will have got them up to at least level 2 in site carpentry before they attend. They will therefor always be able to earn a few quid whatever happens and at bare minimum will be able to do their own houses up and save on paying folk.
As for paying for university, it is what it is

 

I knew someone would say something like this.
It's not prosperity of the individual we are talking about here - it's the prosperity of the district.

Good employers paying high wages will not come to a town with uneducated people.
Hence we get relatively few setting up a business in the district and them that do are generally employers like ASOS etc that pay low wages to uneducated people.

BTW - why the discussion about university fees?
That's nowt to do with it FFS.
Same fees throughout England.

 

Prime example here.
Barnsley's finest.
Tha can't knock a nail in a knot - it just won't go in.

 

Uneducated people, so you are saying anyone without a degree is uneducated? Is this based on not having a degree in sports science, degree in reality tv or a degree in social media studies? It's far from the main reason for employers setting up business in the area.

 

But income and prosperity aren't...
And even though there are 'social' systems in place that make it possible for children from less affluent families to go to university, the thought of £30.0000 investment is still daunting, especially when the area does not offer a lot of jobs that would then, in theory, become available to them.

Believe me. I have a PhD and am looking for work here in the area....

 

My use of bad wording - when I say 'uneducated', what I'm meaning from that is a large percentage of the local population that has a high level of education that good employers are looking for.

This is why young uns with a high level of education usually have to move away from the town because there's no money in the town.

And how does this effect the club???
We end up with a generally skint population in the district that cannot afford to go to many matches.

 

I'd say it's more down to the makeup of our national infrastructure. By this, financial services jobs you won't really find in many towns across Britain, they are dominated by the big Cities. Same applies with the larger employers in retail, they head for footfall rather than say an average size town like Barnsley. Cities are also have far better public transport links and also have universities to draw from. However when we talk about education, since they replaced the old college at the top of Old Mill Lane with a it for purpose modern building, this has become one of the top performing in the country. So the town is not on its knees yet. Town centre regeneration will make it a much nicer place providing the resources are put in place to wipe out a growing culture of anti social behaviour.

 

And yet all people do on FB and twitter is moan at anything that the Council wants to improve. There's no winning....

 

There will always be a negative minority who tend to make the most noise..

 

As with basically everything, which is a shame, really. Is it really that difficult to be positive about things every once in a while?

 

You forgot a 'biggie' Degree courses in 'Hair and Beauty'!! Why do you need a degree to be a hair stylist/beautician?? Whatever happened to apprenticeships and learning on the job starting at getting tea and coffee, sweeping up hair cuttings and putting towels etc in the laundry.

How many hair stylists and beauticians does a country need FFS!

I know.....Let's have a degree course in digging various shaped holes then filling them in again.

 

MSE's Martin Lewis' figures. I can't find the page now (I'll keep looking) but I copied them directly. He's very up on things like this so I would say his figures are 100% accurate and nothing to do with my politics.

Whilst that is strictly true, because of the interest amounts making the debt higher and higher each year, on a £51,600 loan you can pay back £135,000 and yet still have 'never paid it off' and have remaining debt wiped. This is because the low repayments, coupled with high interest make the amount owed far, far more than the amount borrowed. I'd say that paying back £135,000 is very much paying it off (although, of course, technically not because of interest). This inflates the figures where people say that over 3/4s of people have their debt wiped. Some of these people have paid back more than double the amount they have borrowed (even accounting for inflation) but not cleared the ever increasing debt due to interest.

 

Typical strawman argument. You made up something you thought I was suggesting and then argued against it when it was never my opinion in the first place. I would be happy with the loans being more transparent in the first instance (i.e. no capacity to retroactively change signed contracts, fair interest rate changes) and possibly a higher percentage repayment level and/or a lower repayment threshold. I know you can over pay but that's always a risk incase you lose your job or move to a lower paid one but if it was a higher level linked specifically to salary then there's no risk.

People sign up to these loans when they are still at college/sixth form and have no idea whatsoever what they are signing up for as they have no real financial knowledge. They do know, however, that there is no other way they can go without signing that paper. It's a Hobson's choice which would be fair enough if the goalposts didn't keep moving with no regulation. You sign up and it says that changes can happen to the terms at any time and by signing you automatically agree to all changes. I know that's typical for all loans but there is no real competition so everyone signs up to the Student Loan Company who can then do what they want - or they don't go to uni. Since the uni fee price hikes, not taking a loan is not a possibility except for the very rich so students are just at the mercy of any changes the government or SLC dream up.

 

The taxpayer does anyway, in one way or another

 

You sound like Tony Benn

 

I really wanted to go to university, I had a place at JMU but my family was not supportive of it at all, said I should get a job instead. Only now, at almost 35, am I starting uni next month.

 

Not sure if you mean that as a compliment or not!

To me, although I have never been involved enough to really investigate his views on specific issues but the attached link suggest there is very little in that I disagree with. He summed up many peoples view on the EU for example.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-26575258

I think he was a great man, sincere in his beliefs, humble in that he often questioned his views.
(Show me a man who is 100% certain and I will show you a fool).....
I am glad you did not compare me to Hilary Benn who, in my humble opinion, is just another opportunistic politician and not a patch on his father.

We will probably have to agree to differ on our views on JC as I think he is playing people and has adopted the stance...
"The most important quality in a leader is sincerity: if you can fake that, you've got it made."

 

I prefer uncle Ben or better still mr Ben.
That clothes shop was mint.

 

Mortgage companies will lend ridiculous amounts regardless and irresponsibly. When we moved house a couple of years ago I worked out what me and my wife would be comfortable repaying each month. Then went to the most conservative lender, the Nationwide, who offered us over 300 grand, way in excess of what was a sensible amount.

Anyway, my main point is that until we paid our srudent loans off me and my wife were paying back £400 a month. That's a huge amount of money. Luckily we paid them back before we had our kid and the £500 a month childcare kicked in (for only 2 and a half days a week). Fortunately we graduated in the mid 2000s. Today's lot won't ever be able to pay their loans back whilst trying to access the inflated housing market and access childcare.

 

That's amazing! What are you going to do where?