yeah fair I can understand that uni isn’t a necessary step towards achieving life goals and being successful for a lot of ppl. altho I would think in a nursing degree or masters you get trained in taking blood and cannulating aren’t they like main tasks of a nurse? forgive my ignorance
but anyways it’s chill like no hate to uni haters it’s just that for some careers uni can be rlly valuable and sometimes the only path
With uni, Id only go if the degree is a professional requirement (i.e. to be a nurse, you need a nursing degree, to be an engineer you need an engineering degree). I wouldnt bother going to get a generic degree (business, arts etc) because the cost to benefit ratio isnt there. You are far better off breaking into the workforce, gaining experience and then decide to go back later. I remember when I graduated, I was top of my degree and in interviews (I did maybe 30+ as a grad) all the interviewers cared about was my internship, I was NEVER asked about my degree. Even in my career, I frequently work with people who either have degrees in unrelated fields or no degrees at all.
For Business degrees and law, DEI shit looks good on the resume. Or so I suppose. One of my class toppers, and a big DEI supporter, does protest and hold signs. I don't know why, but that dude is smart, there's probably a good reason.
I think there are a lot of misconceptions around DEI, what it does and its value. From a professional and personal standpoint, a business with a diverse workforce will usually perform better than one with a mono-culture. When I say "diverse", Im not just referring to hiring more women or ethnic minorities. Im referring to that plus hiring people across all backgrounds, like people of all ages, parents, people without kids, people from other industries etc. Having a broad range of people in your workplace means you are bringing in more diverse views and that does a lot for innovation etc. Unfortunately, DEI has been captured by activists who are looking to push a social agenda. DEI works best when it is laser focused on supporting business needs, not political ones. It is frustrating to see DEI go too far because its image has been ruined and DEI can do a lot of good when used appropriately
There are a lot of misconceptions as well with hiring practices and DEI. The biggest one I hear is "If you are a women/LGBT/minority etc you get preference for government jobs". This simply isnt the case - we legally cannot discriminate for any reason. The only exception to this is targeted roles, where you need to apply to AHRC to limit hiring to a specific group. This is only granted in narrow circumstances, for example if we are hiring an Indigenous Liaison Officer, it would make sense to hire an Indigenous person, so an exception would be needed from AHRC. In a regular recruitment process, Diversity cant be considered a factor. If we want to attract a more diverse group of candidates, we may choose to change how and where we advertise, but that is all we do. Merit is the only thing we can consider when we actually assess the candidates.
