Not just child’s play

The problem as I see it is a wholesale depreciation of skills. Most jobs require things (I refuse to call them skills) which require no formalised education or training. As a consequence people then do one of two things: question the value of education, and rightly so considering these jobs do not require skills that education develops; or they exploit the educated using market forces, while society does not nothing to increase the number of graduate positions. For example, Waterstones would rather employ someone with customer-relations experience than an English graduate, who knows about the products they are selling. That is not to say the job is suitable for the English graduate, but it does make use of their subject knowledge. Waterstones know this but would they rather employ the less qualified person (most people fail to acknowledge that the sales-orientated applicant is the least qualified of the two applicants, which is part of the problem) for a number of reasons: they can justify a lower wage; they are more likely to sell more products; they are more susceptible to corporate ideology; and this helps perpetuates the market's ideals (buying a copy of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment is far cheaper than buying Martina Cole's Hard Girls), which improves their profit margins and helps the company grow. I graduate next summer, and I will not take it personally if I struggle in the “challenging economic landscape” as there is more to life.

It's interesting that the first paragraph tries to dispel prejudices about what the people who play MMORPGs are like, whilst reinforcing similar prejudices about what the people who play table-top RPGs such as Dungeons and Dragons are like. Presumably it's OK to accept that one group aren't really anti-social geekoids as long as there's still some other group one can feel comfortable about marginalising in this way. Also, the second paragraph is wrong to classify Second Life as an MMORPG. It's not an RPG at all, or even a game. It is similar to World of Warcraft and the others in that the user guides a character around a persistent online world, interacting with other characters also controlled by other people, but it's not a game. It's just an online world that you can explore and interact with, including creating your own content. That makes it in some ways more boring than the others (no set goals or rules) but in other ways more interesting (you can do what you want). (And no, I don't play Dungeons and Dragons or use Second Life.)

@Richard Armstrong - I think you are confusing the issue of 'less qualified' and 'less well qualified'. The English graduate may have a higher level of qualification (eg an undergraduate degree) than somebody who has worked in sales role since leaving school at 18. This does not necessarily mean they are better qualified for the job. It depends what the main purpose of the job is. If it is a sales role, and the person with sales experience is likely to sell more products, then I would suggest that person is better qualified for the role. Of course, if the English graduate can demonstrate that they have a good understanding of how to sell more products, and can back this up with an example that proves their sales expertise or potential, then... I say this as an English graduate who got a job at Blackwells in exactly this role several years ago. Nobody cared about my understanding of Dostoevsky, or indeed chick-lit, but more about how I could relate to a customer and sell ALL kinds of books (there's much more to publishing and book selling that just literature, in any case). Also, dude - markets don't have ideals.

Gabrielle, the failure to acknowledge the real skills that universities attempt to impart is part of the problem. I am not saying the graduate is more qualified because they have a degree, but because the degree has equipped them with superior subject specific knowledge compared to the candidate who just has sales experience; that is not to say someone who does not have a degree does not have this level of knowledge, but companies rarely acknowledge this (i.e. employ someone), but universities generally do when taking into account experience for admissions, or handing out honorary degrees. Again, you say: “It depends what the main of the job is”. But that is exactly the problem I was trying to point out - a wholesale depreciation of skills. Universities do attempt to impart skills which are transferable in the real world (the point of the article), but because they are not explicit companies will ignore them, using it as justification to employ the sales candidate on a lower wage. The sales representative should know what they are talking about, and be able to help in a meaningful way. But that never happens. You go into a mobile phone shop and absolutely none of the staff have any clue how the phones (or its software) actually work; they are trained to respond to problems the customer is likely to ask, or rather ignore the problem and offer a 'solution' which attempts to generate more profit for the company. What I meant by a 'market ideal' is the self-perpetuation of market economies. Waterstones would rather employ the sales representative (for less) who is more likely to read Cole because that perpetuates a model which generates more money for the company; larger profit margins on new products rather than classics like Dostoevsky, taking into account the fact the sales candidate is more likely to sell more too.

@Richard Armstrong - if employers fail to acknowledge 'real skills' that graduates feel they have developed through university, then I would argue that this is because the graduate is not presenting them appropriately, giving evidence for the skills they have and showing why they are relevant to the role and could benefit the employer. I am afraid it is just not true that bookshops employ people based on their reading preferences! But yes, obviously they would want to hire the candidate who can sell the most books. It would be illogical not to!

I wonder if Manville 'gets down' with the kids and dances at weddings. More importantly, I wonder if he plays video games. Hmmm.