Hang on. I'll go call CIC and get you deported. Bloody uneducated immigrants coming here, stealing our jobs.

Yup. There seems to be an obsession with degrees.

I rarely bother to mention my BA these days because it is now irrelevant. I am keeping my DESEM tucked-away in my back pocket for use later when one of Souvette's colleagues starts gobbing off about their MBA.

My stepson made a wise move. He is academically quite able but he's not interested. What he does like is working with stuff. He spent a couple of years getting a Vocational diploma (diplôme d’études professionnelles/DEP) as a precision machinist. Crappy pay to begin with but it goes up fast and it's piss-easy to get work. If his current shop burned down now, he'd have a job somewhere else by suppertime.

Quite a few of his mates have also gone down the vocational route.

Smartest guy I knew on the MBA I did here a few years ago was a young feller who was a red seal pipefitter & had his BComm and MBA on top of that. AFAIK he is still working as a pipefitter but I fully expect him to be running his own empire in the fullness of time. A combination of a skill, redseal approval and the inevitable "academic" quals covers all bases.

More than UK, Canada seems to be obsessed with degrees and post grad qualifications to the extent that they get devalued.

I consider my 15+ years of experience more than enough for me to get any job I want, it has never hindered my career progress and managed to get me from the UK to Canada.

Need more information.

That's great but young people looking for their first job are not in your situation. Same with my wife who is in nursing. She never got a nursing degree because that wasn't the way it was done back in the day. However, try getting into nursing now without a nursing degree. Times change.

Nice theory but it's not backed by the numbers. For example, about a third of young people in each country graduate with a bachelor's degree.

To all those that are giving MarylandNed a hard time; how would you define "decent education"?

True. I will strongly push my kids to getting degree's in today's time and then its up to them if they wish to utilize it/them.

Not an obsession. More a realization of the benefits of a degree. They are not for everyone. I know that from my own children who are very different academically. My know that my son will most likely be going down the vocational route. Nothing wrong with that.

To the extent that they're not a measure of education. There is, for example, no requirement to be properly literate in English/French in order to obtain a degree in Canada. It's not the case that because someone holds a degree we may expect them to be able to deal with long words or to compose a coherent text. They may be able to do so but it's not the case that four years at, say, Waterloo, improves the level of a student's education except in a narrow technical regard. No more so than obtaining a trade qualification would have done. All we can say is that if someone holds such a degree then they had reasonably affluent parents.

"A decent education" isn't quantifiable in the way suggested above. It isn't only, nor necessarily, about documented qualifications from specific institutions.

I think "a decent education" is overrated.

Someone who is naturally bright will find out what they need to know, and then find out what they want to know. Huge difference to being spoonfed facts in order to pass exams.

Someone less bright has no real need of a scholarly education, but needs to be taught some skills so that they can make a living.

Too many think that a piece of paper counts as an education.

I think that Masters etc is over-rated, but many jobs I have seen require Masters, and ALL the ones I have seen require at least an undergraduate.

I didn't think an education was a choice for certain professions, and if you are interested in those, then the degree is no longer a choice.

Agree with Mary that the choice of education is important. The Philosophy degrees etc can have a harder time competing, but I guess it all comes down to luck also. Just create the next brand app!

I fully agree with this sentiment practically, but I also know that (at least in my realm of experience) the education gets you the foot in the door.

And that's pretty much what it represents to me.

Although in technical professions e.g. engineering, accounting, medicine, dentistry etc. then obviously it is critical that the persons do know the knowledge of those fields of study - so the degree means the foot in the door and adequate technical knowledge. IMO.

And yet, didn't you return to the UK because you were concerned about the standards of education in Calgary?

I believe that I am the same person I was prior to obtaining a degree, prior to undergoing a full carpentry apprenticeship and prior to learning whatever I learned in the British Army, while accecpting that those experiences taught me skills I didn't have previously, so I appreciate all that you say.

You don't always need a degree to get your foot in the door.