Degree or Apprenticeship...?

Do graduates always earn more than non-graduates?  Figures obtained by Labour MP Frank Field show that, between April and June last year, 27% of graduate employees were paid a gross hourly wage that was lower than the average £11.10 earned by non-graduates with an Apprenticeship. [ However, Office for National Statistics figures do show the average gross pay for graduates in the period was £15.18 an hour, and they were also slightly more likely to be in work. ]  Of the 12 million graduates, 10.5 million (87%) were in employment, compared with 2 million (83%) of the 2.5 million non-graduates in Apprenticeships. ‘Successive generations of young people have been shoe-horned into universities on the promise of improving their lifetime earnings', Field stated. ‘But, as well as being saddled with eye-watering levels of debt, more than a quarter of them now work in part-time roles earning lower wages than workers with an Apprenticeship under their belt…  We need to encourage more young people to think hard about the best ways of achieving their goals in life.’

[ source:  SSAT Policy & Curriculum Radar ]