Editor’s note: This article was first published in July 2010, in Spain. Its lists of the most-demanded degrees and of degrees to avoid with a view to 10 years (architecture, humanities) reflect the job market right after the 2008 crisis.
A few months ago I wrote about the degrees that would be most in demand in the future, and I have to admit I wasn’t too far off. If choosing a university degree was already hard to get right, it’s much harder now. The crisis has completely changed which degrees and professions have the most future.
Today, according to official studies, a third of university graduates in the European Union don’t work in a job that matches their training, and they earn considerably less than they could if they worked in their field.
A high percentage of students no longer choose their degree out of vocation but with an eye on their job prospects, so they risk being unhappy in their work later on.
The degrees most sought after in the job market are:
- Business Administration and Management (ADE)
- Medicine
- Nursing
- Economics
- Industrial Engineering
And the degrees you’d better not even go near if you’re thinking ten years ahead are:
- Architecture (both the full degree and technical architecture)
- Humanities
Given the statistics, which show that many university graduates end up in jobs that don’t require that much training, the question arises of whether to take a vocational training course or a university degree. We discussed that topic in a previous article.
But let me give you my personal advice, statistics aside. If the Business Administration and Management degree has something good going for it, it isn’t that it’s in higher demand than the rest. It’s that it’s the only one that gives you some basic knowledge for running your own business.
No university teaches you how money works, but you can start learning right here, where we try to encourage people to start their own businesses, because with an uncertain job market ahead, the best thing isn’t to look for a job, it’s to create one.
Further reading
- How to lose your fear of starting a business
- How to be a successful entrepreneur
- Tips for running a business in times of crisis
- The 10 most in-demand jobs of the future
Featured image: Ian Barbour, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr.
