Peter Jackson column

Sep 15 2005 By Peter Jackson, The Journal

For many students, the next few weeks will see the start of their last year of university life.

This will mean not only a growing terror over finals but also, perhaps, a mild awakening of interest in the question of what to do with the rest of their lives.

In other words - what job to go for?

I only hope the kind of advice they are being given reflects the changing nature of the world of work.

I'm hardly making an original point when I say that patterns of employment are shifting. We all know, and have known for some time, that the days of a job-for-life with one employer are gone.

I also suspect that the likelihood of salaried employment with one employer will become increasingly remote.

No, if university careers advisers are to give guidance that really reflects the new workplace, then that guidance will have to deal with self-employment as an option.

In future, I believe professionals - and students presumably aspire to be professionals - will increasingly work on a freelance basis, moving from employer to employer, or working for a number of employers simultaneously.

I believe this is a model of employer/worker relationship which will increasingly suit both parties.

I also suspect that increasing numbers of graduates will go further, and will set up their own businesses shortly after leaving university.

In an economy where enterprise is encouraged as the great driver of future growth, this has to be a good thing.

Young, energetic businesses in the creative, IT and other knowledge sectors will form the mainstay of our economy and, hopefully, pay our pensions.

But how will graduates feel about shunning salaried employment in the light of the fact, reported this week, that 18 to 25-year-olds are increasingly getting into debt?

According to the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, the number of its clients in that age bracket has doubled from 6% to nearly 13% in the past three years.

The question is - will this put them off the idea of self-employment and of taking on more debt to fund a business?

Or have they become so inured to debt they will plunge happily into entrepreneurial risk? And maybe the more important question is - how will the lenders feel about it?