Task 2 model answer 19: A course of study with no employment opportunities serves no purpose

For many people, the main purpose of education is to provide the necessary knowledge and training to obtain a job, yet there are also people who hold that any further education can be said to have potential in the job market. Agreeing with this latter view, this opinion will now be supported.

Primarily, there is the difficulty in knowing exactly which course of study is likely to have clear employment possibilities. For those students opting to study arts subjects such as English literature, there is no direct path; potential opportunities could include becoming a librarian, author or teacher but none of these can be said to be direct. Yet there is undeniable value in studying these subjects, as they allow for a more open-minded view of the world, an attitude which could later be useful in a business setting.

Another point to consider is the job market itself. With many industries in a constant state of evolution, studying for a particular path of employment may be redundant as the industry could well have changed direction by the time of graduation. Moreover, at the time of entering university, the majority of people do not have a clear career path and thus they choose those study courses that appeal to them rather than those that offer a clear future.

To sum up, perhaps the best solution would be to adopt a more developed system of apprenticeships and work training, so that students can be moulded alongside changes in the industry, while those students with unfocused or general employment plans can continue with the current system.