News
Friday, June 29, 2012
Thousands of Pak students in Britain doing low-grade jobs* More than 20,000 who graduated last summer are jobless
* 10,270 opted for menial jobs last year
By Asif Mehmood
LONDON: Thousands of Pakistani graduate and undergraduate students in Britain have been forced to work for low wages and pursue menial jobs as cleaners, sweepers and porters due to rising unemployment and recession in the country.
More than 20,000 British Pakistani students who graduated last summer are without a job. Moreover, an increasing number of university graduates are opting for low-paying positions because of a decreasing number of well-paying opportunities. Last year, some 10,270 graduates found work as labourers, couriers, office juniors, hospital porters, waiters, bar staff, cleaners, road sweepers and school dinner servers. This was almost double the number in 2007 before the recession struck. University lecturers in Britain warned that the disclosure – in data published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency – represented further evidence of the “incredibly challenging” job market for fresh graduates. University and College Union General Secretary Sally Hunt told Daily Times the figures were “further bad news for students”. “People working hard at university face an incredibly challenging job market when they graduate and the government should be doing more to stimulate jobs and growth,” she said. “We already have huge numbers of people on the dole and while the prime minister attacks people on benefits, he is doing little to help them get off benefits and on with their lives.”
But, Britain’s Universities Minister David Willetts insisted that getting a degree was still a worthwhile move, with graduates likely to earn significantly more over their lifetime than people qualified to A level or GCSE standard. In the future, universities will be required to set out details of graduate employment rates – and average future salaries – to give prospective students more information when applying for courses, he said. “We must ensure that graduates enter the labour market equipped to succeed,” he added.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk