What major did you graduate with and what's your job now?

Graduation was out of my league! I was not clever enough to have gone to university.

Nevertheless my end-of-school examination results were enough for a working life of almost 46 years at modest, shop- or lab- floor levels in various, mechanical and electrical, engineering and science related employment. I'm now retired.

However I did not go to school for my work, as such.

You do not "graduate" from school here in the UK, nor normally from a further-education college.

You "graduate" only from a Degree, Masters or PhD. The Degree course is mainly for adult students (18+).

Also it is taught within or by a university; you don't "major" in anything but take a cohesive course in a subject.

By no means all graduates follow careers directly related to their degree subjects, either; for various reasons.


Instead the schools teach a broad range of subjects up to standard school-leaving examinations in them. These plus your interest and aptitude determine your further-education and/or work paths. They aim to give you your widest opportunities as an adult within and outside work, not for any particular career. Though an individual pupil may choose to work extra hard at particular subjects to suit his or her own further-education ambition, for intended career purposes.

If you obtain sufficient marks in those Examinations you can study three (not less, rarely more) subjects from ages 16-18, at "Advanced Level" in your chosen subjects, for entry qualifications to University to study the main of those subjects for a Degree. The three are not "major" (and "minor"?) but are taught equally and the end exam marks in all three, count for your university entrance.

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I did take the standard secondary-school level Maths and Physics courses and exams in my early-40s for career reasons; doing so as an evening-class student in a college. It was largely a refresher as I had left school years before, with similar exam passes in Maths and "General Science".

You can of course also study for a Degree in later years - at your expense unless sponsored by an employer - for its own sake or interest, or career development, as a "mature student". A friend who held a Degree anyway from attending university after leaving school, gained his PhD as part of his hobby, in a retirement project!

One way to do that in Britain is the Open University, run by regular universities. It is mainly by correspondence plus some tutorials etc. in various university or college campuses. A work colleague obtained his Degree that way.

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I have been puzzled recently by hearing Americans on the radio mention "graduate schools" - do they mean universities or some sort of university outreach scheme using local adult-education colleges?