I’m now 61, I know it’s hard to believe but I put that down to Nivea.

I’ve just registered for a law degree with the OU, it’ll take about five years to complete. The interesting thing is that you can get a student loan for fees and not pay a penny back after you’re 65!

You may say it’s pointless but it’s something I fancy so why not.

Called to the Bar at 65, in Court not the local Pub.

Yeah I listen to them a lot, 'Come as you are' is a good track...

Good luck with that, keep your brain,
from turning to mush.

Would any student fees cover international travel as an essential part of your learning....However you may have to update your name from Mr Irrelevant to Mr Inspirational... Like

I think everyone should have the right to go on to University if they can fulfill the criteria, you never stop learning…….fill yer boots.

Great idea. I knew a friend who was ex police who qualified as a solicitor well into his 50s.

Are you going to specialise in any branch of law?

I fancy criminal law, I have a Rumpole thing in mind.

Never too old to study. If it's something you have an interest in it's a hobby and not a chore. Lifelong learning has to be a good thing.

I think you should study ancient history specialising in when Pools could last defend. Good luck.

I quite fancy studying French again. I was quite good at it at school. Plenty of frogs in Samui

You should always keep your mind and body active.

Is there a course on how to motivate Pools defence?

Good luck snowy the law degree does generally take five years and involves a lot of hard work. I know a number of work mates who started but gave up as it was taking too much time. However they were working at the time so you will have that advantage.

its certainly not pointless for you even at that age but my gripe is the ability to get a student loan for doing something
that interests you and with a good chance you,ll never practice if you pass. Its not a knock at you but a system that allows it.

If you still have a north east accent see if you can speak it before you take it up seriously. could not get my tongue around french and a germanic language might be easier to pronounce as i found with afrikaanse.

Er, Mr I is taking it….I’m walking dogs, painting and sketching and building things now I’ve shaken loose from the shackles of work.
I took three A levels in the 80’s English Literature, History and Sociology…passed em all with B’s but found Sociology is the basis of the decline in of sanity/common sense in society.

I wasn’t academy gifted, in my day very few tradesmen attended college they learned on the job, nowadays it’s all about education education, education, the majority of kids couldn’t put a a nut on a bolt or a screw in the wall to hang a picture.

You,ll need your own Tea Mug, Fully stained.
Like the one Rumpole cherished.

Only cause you to chat with our french midfielder.lol

"Weve got a french midfielder"

Poirot is looking into "The case of the missing clean sheet"

Last spotted in Dagenham

Maybe MrI can help, You go for it MrI nowt to lose, Good Luck.

I hope to hear in 5 years time lot's of, Guilty!!! Send the Scum bag down!!!! Even better hang the Fookers and save tax payers money!

thing is very few lads are both good academically and doing the work they are employed to do. both are two different skills and many are good at one but not the other. if they actually are everyone from there relatives to school teachers will do their best to persuade them to follow an academic career, go on to university, be bored in a job which might be lower paid than what they would have got doing some trade. we still have a very snobbish society that i know of quite well.

Go for it Mr I.

Personally I don’t think it’s snobbish to want your children to do better. I was a ‘wager lad’ my father a steel worker he pushed me to get a trade. When my children came I pushed them to get a career with a job for life. My children pushed their kids into university but only with degrees that gave them worthwhile careers.

its not snobbish wanting your kids to do well and go into a good career. it is when you decry certain jobs because some want to tell their neighbours what there johnny and gemima are doing at uni as they call it or what they are doing after it. you are probebly not like that but so many are using kids to bolster there lives for what others think about them.

Ironically a traditional tradesman will earn far more than the majority of degree holders these days. Since Blair the value of a degree has plummeted with the exception of ‘proper’ degrees - medicine, law, dentistry etc.

I started my training in 1970…..you had one day a week release to attend college, mine was a four year course, the span of my training, a year in training school on starting where all the basics were hammered into you.
You had to attend college, no option not to, as you couldn’t be classed as a tradesman in any trade without your City & Guilds courses completed.

It is natural for people to talk about their kids prowess if those kids are doing well. It is because they're genuinely proud of them and their achievements and so they should be, especially when sacrifices had to be made to help them succeed.
We have a massive talent bank in this country and we should be proud of all of them.

not bothered about the others and my only wish for mine are that they,ll be happy and free from illness in life. the rest is up to them and as long as they actually work i could not care less what they do for it. its just my lads choice of football team thats been a let down breaking tradition.

Yes we all wish our kids to be happy and free from illness but they still need advice and guidence when they are young and inexperienced with the real world.

Nice one & good luck

How many of us say we want our kids to be happy yet put them through the misery of the University of Victoria Park?

think thats happened to most of us. if only childline was about in those days eh.

Ah, the University of Victoria Park…got my Masters Degree there when it was the University of Clarence Road, also attended the School of Hard Knocks and the Nursery of getting the shit kicked out of you. Happy Days.

Kids are either sent to college or uni nowadays, in years gone by all the big industrial companies had their own training schools turning out tradesmen and engineers. I remember when there used to be loads of job adverts for U.K. personnel for vacancies in the Middle East.

I was in training school for my first year but still had to attend college once a week for four years to get my qualifications, every trade had to .

In my time it was mandatory for the company to allow you to attend college for 1 year and pay you for the day after that if you wanted to attend college you forfeited a days wage. No one ever did, the first year got you the basic certificate to qualify you as a tradesman, Electrician after 5 years, in fact most of the older tradesman never had any qualifications as college education didn’t exist but they were damned good and skilled at their job far better than many of the highly educated tradesmen of today.i worked with.

even if you were doing qualifications for being an accountant all you had on offer was a correspondence course which you had to do at night after slogging it out at work in the evenings. ex graduates back then were only exempt from doing a small part of it. had to do the same with a 4 part institute of transport one but had enough after doing part one and and left the rat race behind. would never have got far anyway if i had completed it as i was too outspoken and poor in interviews.

When was this, the 50’s…? I started 1970 and it was compulsory for your City and Guilds or you were classed as a ‘makey up’ tradesman. Not saying they couldn’t do the job, but it was compulsory with big company’s.

Late 60s, we are talking Electrical Contractors not multinationals, no way were the Electricians makey up, some were well into there 50s, college courses didn’t exist in their days. As an apprentice you were assessed by the company at the end of the 5 year apprenticeship you received a certificate, I still have mine. In later years it did become more regulated but the Certificates required are now just a cash cow, a one week course is in excess of £1000 to enable you to work on some projects, it’s all about liability.

Got my C&G tucked away somewhere in the house.
Don,t know if they carry much clout nowadays.

it always makes me wonder that was the 5 year apprenticeships really too long a period anyway. know you never stop learning but in any line of work there is a maximum of what is available to do or not. remember when we had the gas change over to north sea gas. i,m sure those lads who did that must have done some crash course or other to be able to do a job like that which could have been dangerous if done wrong. even now some companies train their own staff and have no national qualifications. however if its known you have worked for them any length of time you can get a job anywhere else locally at least. know a lad who worked a bit in a garage who went to college to do car mechanics. started in september and by november he had progressed to fitting and checking the gap of a spark plug. basically its stretching the course out far longer that in needed.

In my ‘profession’ as an Electrician it’s now been deskilled over the years, cable pullers, cable support installers, glanding operatives etc, they are breaking the trade up due the shortage of Electricians and also when they deskill they can reduce the rates of pay.
The Electrical contractors on Hinckley Point nuclear power station tried to introduce various grades for the electrical installations meaning lower rates of pay but it was blocked.

bet there are no shortage of admin jobs there where their rates of pay are never in danger.

Admin jobs doing what ?

The North sea job was one basic task … strictly nothing else.

I'm 59 in May, and I am seriously thinking of taking a similar route as you are.

And just like you, I'm thinking "Why not?"

This may sound a bit of a shitty reason, but it will keep the Nash off my back if nowt else...

The fact that you use the word 'Nash' makes you very old!

Good job he didn’t use the word ‘workhouse’ then.

L.A.Law or Crown Court the old tv series in the 70's..what was the inspiration mri..?