We love a good ding-dong at Graduate Fog – fire and ire are the lifeblood of this website. Feel free to slug it out over the following debates…
Who’s fault is it if gradautes can’t spel?
Employers love to bash young jobseekers for poor spelling and grammar – but is that fair? If standards are slipping, surely schools are to blame?
Fair or unfair? Former interns get higher starting salaries
Graduates who intern for three months add £1,500 to their starting salary. Is it a reward for grafters – or a penalty for the poor?
Can you survive on the minimum wage?
It’s been dubbed the ‘poverty wage’ because it’s so grim to live on, but for thousands of graduates the minimum wage are only just scraping by. Are you one of them?
Can jobless graduates afford to have principles?
Would you work for an oil company, weapons manufacturer or cigarette maker? Or will you only apply to work for ‘good’ employers? Have your say!
Was your degree worth the money?
Nick Clegg has apologised for pledging to scrap tuition fees – but is it too late? Are students being conned into buying worthless qualifications?
What should be done about youth unemployment?
Almost a million 16-24-year-olds are now out of work – what is the solution to this growing crisis? What’s stopping you from getting a job?
Should job boards ban ads for unpaid internships?
While many unpaid internships are illegal, advertising them seems not to be. Would banning ads help stamp out the practice? Or would that limit access to only those ‘in the know’?
Do you feel bad taking money from your parents?
Still living with your mum and dad – and accepting their hand-outs? So are thousands of others. Do you feel bad about it? Or does their generation owe yours?
Have graduates become second-class citizens?
You’re interning unpaid, considering prostitution – and being urged sell your kidneys to pay off your debts. Don’t graduates deserve more respect?
Did youth unemployment cause the England Riots?
Or is there no excuse for the violence and looting we’ve seen this week? Was the rioting a form or protest – or straightforward anarchy?
Initially, I liked to think that the underlying cause for the riots was youth unemployment. Evidently, it was pure anarchy. But the whole episode has left me feeling sympathy for some rioters. I cannot condone what they have done in general terms, but I would understand such action being taken by persons who have genuinely made an effort (hundreds, maybe thousands of job applications) to find work but encounter rejection at every turn.
Everything David Cameron says rings so hollow. What’s worse, it isn’t just the Conservatives because they inherited a dire situation. I don’t think older generations have any concept of how difficult it is to find work, so the media portrayal of youth unemployment is too partial. Serious issues like unpaid “internships” are treated casually by institutions as well-established as the BBC.
I don’t find it surprising that SOME people who feel that they have been failed by society decided to loot. As long as society is both governed by people who do not understand the serious issues facing youth unemployment AND current affairs are communicated by people who ALSO do not understand these issues, then the negative stigma attaching to unemployment will persist. In these times, this stigma seems misconceived. For those rioters with just cause, I do not doubt that their actions stemmed from frustration.
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