Clodagh Brennan writes for the University of Sheffield’s Forge Today on the difficult reality of being a graduate:

From the sheltered position as a student, I only ever take the realities of the world seriously at home. But since having successfully passing the hurdle of exams, I have given over to worrying about the working world, and with good reason: The Guardian’s ‘Comment is Free’ recently devoted a week to exploring the ‘Graduate without a Future’, in other words graduates struggling to find even low skilled employment, let alone ‘graduate level’ jobs which make use of their higher education.

I am sure the story is familiar to many twenty-something year old graduates currently applying for jobs a hundred applicants to one, jumping around irregular temp jobs, doing six month internships with no pay and no employment guarantees, or being forced to move back in with their parents. The diplomacy behind which, is another article in itself.

For those not studying STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths), the outlook is bleak. For those studying Humanities subjects, myself included, the outlook is bleaker and coupled with rising fees, the value of supposed ‘soft subject’ degrees has been hauled under scrutiny repeatedly…

Full story here.