Why your education & grades shouldn’t define you
Sonia, one of our pilot interns and now a member of the CF team, speaks on her experience of education and why exploring all your options is essential to finding the right path for yourself
Young woman in green graduation can and gown leaning on a balcony (Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash)
The education system favours some over others. There are so many barriers to jump through for certain individuals, some more obvious and some less so. The most recent (obvious) example is this year’s A-level results being moderated. Although the algorithm was said to be fair, the students who worked in smaller cohorts (which private schools are more likely to have) would’ve received a more generous moderated grade than peers.
With the downgrading hitting those in disadvantaged areas hardest, this is a cherry on top of the existing barriers. One barrier which I personally experienced in education was language. Although the level of education in my home country is more advanced compared to the UK, when I began studying in the UK, because my English wasn’t fluent, I was automatically placed in the bottom set for the majority of subjects. This subtle move hinted that “you are less than“ and while I slightly enriched the institutions’ diversity statistic it is so proud to showcase, I was simply not given the same support I should’ve received - consequently this did set me back a few years when compared to peers back at home.
Alongside this, I found that the process for assessing student’s abilities through exams is flawed. It excludes individuals whose skills and talents are more likely to shine through when they can work flexibly and undertake practical tasks, rather than in timed conditions in a sports hall while staring at a blank piece of paper. I disliked exams which involved public speaking such as presentations due to the language barrier, or written and timed essays as I preferred to show my work visually. This meant that I purposefully chose subjects which were marked based on specific coursework, which ultimately narrowed down the subjects available.
These barriers are why I believe that an individual's education or grade doesn’t define how far they will go in life, how worthy they are or how employable they are. This is why I loved being part of the Collaborative Future work placement programme, both as a young person taking part in the placement, and now as an individual helping to shape it for others. From the get-go, the barriers of grades and subjects one may have chosen (or was instructed to choose) at school are removed by not asking for CVs or details of educational attainment.
Instead our paid work placement programme focusses on people’s skills, strengths, passions and interests.
This automatically means we hire more diverse people, both in terms of background but also in views and opinions. On the programme, we are working with young people from all walks of life: some of our interns’ circumstances led them to be unemployed straight out of college, others have attended university but struggled to find related work and have since found themselves underemployed on a zero-hour contract within retail or hospitality (the worst hit sectors during the pandemic) and some have spent their late teens and early twenties growing and caring for their family, unable to earn a living or continue education due to the inflexibility of the system.
The saying “you can only be what you can see“ also feels very relevant when looking back at my experience of college. University was the only path I was exposed to at the time and the college I went to was pitching “the university experience” hard, but I was not convinced that these few years were really worth the debt. Plus, I knew that the shining alumni employability stats pointed out by university reps were part of a sales pitch and employability was not a given the moment you graduated. Even with internships and apprenticeships becoming more popular, there is still an assumption that University is the only viable path. University, however, does not work for everyone, and for some it’s a narrow path they end up departing from. Even creative subjects with the freedom to make, such as Fine Art, turn rigid as institutional objectives must be met. Hobi, one of the young people currently taking part in our work placement programme said “..my college described University art courses as less practical work and more annotations and writing about the process, which wasn’t really something I was as interested in. This led me into thinking Uni wasn’t for me and I started looking into other options..”.
If I was to pass on a piece of wisdom to anyone thinking about their future, I would say to research all options and don’t jump at the default your college is pitching.
Speak to the small business owner you admire on your local high street, to your parents’ friend who is working their way up at a large organisation, to the volunteer at a charity or the person in your life who is juggling family with a side hustle. Ask them about their experiences and advice. They will all provide you with an insight a college simply would not. These were the conversations I had when I took part in the pilot of the work placement programme and was at a crossroads about what to do in life. I found the Collaborative Future community to be generous with their time but also honest and transparent as to the ups and the downs that come with working for yourself, for an employer or both (if you have a spare hour, I recommend listening to our conversations with inspiring freelancers, business owners and employees around different paths you can take). Perhaps if these conversations happened before I went to University, I would have pursued a different subject, gone straight into the world of work and worked my way up, or had the confidence to set up a business.
What barriers have you noticed in your time at school or college? Have your future plans been affected by the ‘moderated’ A-level results? Looking back, what conversations do you wish you had on your Results Day?
Comment below or drop us a line at hello@collaborativefuture.co.uk
If you are a young person aged 18-24 and not in full-time education and employment, join our community and apply to take part in our remote, flexible and paid work placements alongside freelancers, small businesses and organisations.
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