When people ask me what job opportunities my philosophy studies give me, I answer: Nobody! I also chose not to read because I wanted a job, but because I would be wiser
Our society makes a lot of telling young people how important it is that we educate ourselves - and that we want to take long academic education. The Danish welfare state would like to make the necessary funds available.
And not only that the education at both basic, medium and high levels is free, financial support is also provided to the students so that they do not depend on having wealthy parents and not have to settle debt. In other words, our society invests in education.
I'm young and training me. And I'm in a hurry: After primary school, I went straight to high school, which I completed this summer, after which I'm continuing to university.
I do not plan any interruptions in my course of study. If I travel abroad, it will only happen in connection with my study. Therefore, I can look forward to graduate graduates with a candidate certificate at hand at the age of 24 years. If I'm lucky and skilled, I may be allowed to take a PhD degree in direct extension of my candidate.
If I succeed, I have a graduate education just 27 years old. Thus, it seems that society's money is well-invested in my education - or does it?
The little but
There is a little 'but' in this story: I study philosophy.
This means that even if I am allowed to take a PhD, there is a high probability that I may probably put myself in the unemployment queue after graduation. I have to ask for unemployment benefits until I find a job. And I'm sure I'll find a job. But the chance that it will be one where I can take advantage of the skills I have acquired through my education are very small.
When I've told friends and family that I'm reading philosophy, I'm often asked if there are any job opportunities in it.
The more cynical asks directly if there is some money in it.
In the beginning I always came up with an optimistic answer and pointed out that, in any case, I could teach at a high school. But gradually, I have realized that the job opportunities for philosophers are basically limited - extremely limited indeed.
After some time, I began to answer 'nobody!' When people asked what job opportunities I would have as a philosopher.
The point is that job opportunities have never entered into my reflections on education. It has not played into what education I have chosen. Philosophy is my great interest. I believe that I become a better person and get a better life by studying philosophy. This does not mean that you become a better person by reading philosophy, it is up to yourself what enriches one's life.
And is not that what education is basically about?
A goal in itself
I believe that education is good for the individual, and it is not just a means of securing a good income later in life. Education is an end in itself.
As a student you are presented with thoughts and ideas that you might never have encountered elsewhere. You are forced to learn to think and understand, because reflection is essential to all forms of learning. And you get the least insight into the world around one.
It provides skills that are far more enriching than those who alone can make a rich one. Perspective, critical sense and formation do not create growth in the private sector - they are too much worthwhile!
You develop through knowledge
Through education you develop as a human being. One gets the opportunity to enter into adulthood with a unique character shaped by one's volunteer specialization within the area of the world that has just one's interest.
You can read biology for the sake of job opportunities, but you can read it as well, because one's great passion is to go to the woods in the summer and see the nature run out.
Or you can read history in the hope of getting a job at a museum, but maybe you just have a burning desire to understand the development our society has undergone?
No matter what; If we make education an obligation to society where you are expected to qualify within a field that can generate economic growth, we compromise the universal right to free and free of social pressure to educate yourself on what It is best for one self. That right constitutes the right to live exactly the life you want.
