NOOOOooooo don't join the RAF or any service as an officer now as you will get paid up to £7k a year less than those with a degree doing exaclty the same job!!!!
Rubbish positively rubbish advice, you get promoted slower and get given worse jobs and before anyone thinks this is a chunter it isn't. I was a graduate entrant to the services but I did have to put up with plenty of whinging at RMAS and my pilots course from the BRNC and RAFC grads as to the fact that they were getting so little cash, bleat bleat bleat etc when they had had the chance to go to uni and didn't or were just past puberty and didn't have any debt to pay off anyway!!!
The services pay grads more to attract grads 95% RMAS intake are grads!! admittedly not as many at RAFC but that is not a reason not to go/stay
STAY AT UNI READ THE REST OF MY RANT PLEASE.
Just been sitting on the fence but I cannot anymore. I think that anyone who is not sure if they should go/continue/ leave etc wrt uni must be barking.
If you have the chance to go to university especially at the correct age. Then unless someone threatens you with death GO for gods sake. You do not know what will happen.
You don't know when the next Sep 11th will be you.
You don not know when the next SARS will be.
You only have one life and no reverse button.
Okay I am not saying that you need a PhD or an MBA to get a job as a pilot but in a country where getting a degree is pretty easy for anyone able to pass the ATPL exams then why would you not want to have one?
Don't give me rubbish about student debt. Graduates in this country earn considerably more than average compared to the rest of the country. So when you are in between flying, applying for flying, waiting for flying, temping, taking up alternative career, looking for something else due medical, money, giving up, etc then tell me it didn't help you out.
There are employers out there who say that they do not care about degrees and there are truthful ones. I will admit if you happy to be lucky enough to have a family business to go to or your rellies own a farm/cobblers/etc then yes having a degree will make little difference but for pretty much any job worth having OUTSIDE of aviation (and then only in some firms) NOT having a degree means hat if you do even get considered then it is always at a lower level, slower progression, lower pay grade, etc.
Don't believe me look at the application forms for Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Ernst Young, any legal job, any medical job, any teaching job, in fact any FTSE firm in the world of Industry and Commerce if we move away from the hard line professions and look at HR, Marketing, Sales, Retail. Tourism, Leisure, the list is endless find any large firm which does not have a graduate programme where you will earn more and get better promotion for having a degree then tell me again why if you could you wouldn't!!!!
A levels are pretty much far harder than most degrees in intensity (as they tend not be complementary in subject matter, are mostly non-modular and are designed to test a certain type of recall not necessary for university success [caveat unless you intend to do a hard line profession i.e. law, medicine, engineering, etc])
However you are not even competing with others who do have a degree in underwater basket weaving if you don't have one. The subject is pretty irrelevant unless you want a vocational backup. i.e. do a BEd if your plan B is to be a teacher, or do nursing so that at the least you have lots of bank work available whilst you look for flying jobs round the world, etc DO not be fooled into thinking that Aeronautical Eng or similar will look good unless you love it it is a very very tough course with little decent employment potential unless you bury yourself in the library for most of uni.
Do something nice and easy and enjoy your youth at parties, climbing mountains and visiting poor African nations whilst you can. You have the entire rest of your life to work! (44 years if you do a 3yr course and no gap year) Who do you know who dies and has an epitaph saying that they wished they'd worked for longer/harder/variations on the theme?
Yes it costs money, yes it takes time but it will give you unrepeatable & unforgettable experiences. Some bad, some good, some scary, some funny, some definitely not so but unless you make the GRAVE GRAVE mistake of thinking university is solely about education you will be far far more employable by anyone with your degree than without. Whatever it is you choose to subsequently do.
For those who mentioned UAS, an excellent way to keep close to aviation I found my time on a UAS of excellent use in my career to date for many reasons other than the flying strangely enough.
I know that I am going to get slated now and really don not care as this is what forums are for. I just think that it is criminal for people to be suggesting that it does not matter. It matters very much not to getting a job but to appreciating your life and the world you live in. I cannot wait for the day that educations (not necessarily school) is made compulsory until 18 in this country and we stop this ridiculous practice of sending children out to work who should be learning skills useful to the crown, the country, the economy and themselves. I think it may be the one thing that I envy Germany for (that and their car industry of course
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