Just wanted to add my thoughts on this subject. I personally don’t think/expect having a degree will necessarily help me in getting a job as a pilot, however, I certainly don’t think it will disadvantage me.
Going to university is something that can only be decided by that person and depends entirely upon their personal circumstances. Having it as a ‘backup’ is all very well and good, but as pointed out by others, that could mean your be looking at starting out in that career sometime after graduating and your be competing with younger ‘fresher’ graduates, so it’ll be tough. Plus your need to convince an employer that your not just an unemployed pilot who wants a job as a stop gap and you won’t be off at the first sniff of a flying job
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The shelf life issue is not so important (at least in some subjects), when I started my job as a graduate engineer how much knowledge from my degree did I use?……..absolutely none! All the information and knowledge I needed was obtained through on the job training. The only thing the degree did was tell my employer that I had the potential to learn and understand technical subjects.
Going back to my point about it being down to individual circumstances, I left college with bog standard results (actually they were crap
)‘Mr average’ (if not below!), at that stage I had no way of funding my training myself and to be honest knew damn well that I wouldn’t get a look in at any ‘sponsorships’ with my qualifications. I also remember feeling that with my past exam results, almost resigned to the fact that I was not smart enough to become a pilot.
I saw university as an opportunity to start again and prove to myself and others that I could do better, so that’s what I did. Four years later I was practically a changed person! I’d met some incredible people, learnt a hell of a lot about life, learnt to fly for FREE with the uni air squadron, and got a 1st in my degree
I can safely say that going to university turned my life around, getting the degree was just one part of it! I’ve since worked as a engineer, got more life experience (well a tiny bit!), saved loads of dosh for the flying and can now go on and get my fATPL without getting into stacks of debt. Also, having worked for a while in an area that was related to my degree I have got a bit of work experience and made contacts with people who could help me if I ever need to fall back on engineering.
Well I think I’ve rattled on a bit here, but I hope my point is clear, its all swings and roundabouts, but going to university is entirely down to your circumstances and what you want to get out of it.
Best of luck to anyone currently in this dilemma, it’s not an easy choice!