I'm in a very good mood today (can't tell you why, that's personal) but I very much am. But that cannot stop this little life commentary I've got going.
So onto modern intelligence. An experiment: go into your local town and look at all the people working around you. Think about where they could come from, where they went to school, what their IQ is. I bet I can guess your answer.
I've been looking for work for a while now and just can't seem to get a job. I guess I'd better tell you my qualifications. I have a full set of GCSE's, A-C grades. An AS level and 3 A levels. And I was a member of the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY), a group of the top 5% of the country's youth. Look it up.
My problem? I didn't work right out of school, so I don't have the experience that a lot of the secondary school drop-outs do. With Britain still in a recession employers want people who they don't have to train or pay that much, I do not fall into this group. Maybe the market is flooded with intelligent, confident, people with new ideas... But I doubt it.
It turns out that intelligence isn't valued any more. The smart kids are ignored, left to entertain themselves while the not so talented kids (or the lazy ones) get teachers bending over backwards for them. Employers don't want to change or take on new ideas because they're worried about possibly losing their business. Any job that does take intelligence isn't hiring as the government are cutting their funding left, right, and centre.
It's no wonder teenagers are happy to stay uneducated. Apparently they have better prospects.
I'd blame drugs, TV, gangs or the tellytubbies but it's not any of that. It's fear. The fear of failure on every front. You can't fail if you never try. They're never taught that not failing does not equal success. Yes, you have to work for it, but it's worth it.
I wish my belief in that wasn't faltering so heavily. I wish I could just get that one break, that one piece of art, that one novel, that one chance to really change things but that doesn't look likely to happen any time soon.
Have you ever had trouble finding work due to being mentally "overqualified"?
The thing is intelligant people know how they should be treated and have to be paid a certain amount for the skills they have and also know when their conditions are unacceptable. Conversely, for working class labour-level the applicants are a penny-a-dozen and there is always a high turn over of people wanting the jobs. Therefore Employers don't have to worry about going to any great lengths to retain their employees.
ReplyDeleteRemember when Meridius with all his video camera expetise got put on a zero hour contract anyway by a certain camera shop? They claimed it was because they had over-spent on staff despite what a resource he was for the store. After he left I had my suspicions which out to be right when he went pas the store and saw they had an ad in the window looking for a new member of staff after continueally telling him there were no available hours.
What I turned out to be right about was that not longer after, a 16 year old lad who'd worked there before got the position. Thing is, Mark is over 21 which means they have to pay him the maximum basic pay. What they actually wanted was the hours covering for not much money. They had to advertise it widely to give the illusion of fairness as ageism is illegal.
But just as I prophecised, the chap who actually got the position was a 16 year old they could have cover the same hours for a fraction of the cost, not even minimum wage as there is no set minimum wage for those under 18.
Minimum wage here in the UK for those 18 and over is between £4.20 - £5.00 roughly. When I was 16 and working at Morrisons supermarket I was on £3.60 an hour, slight difference lol?
Also, a guy my Grandma knew went to uni to do a degree for this position he wanted with B.T and once he'd graduated, was told he was now over-qualified! It doesn't do my own confidence an good when another friend of mine who has an M.A in the same course as me for which if I graduate, I shall be meerly a B.A has yet to find work!