“You’re fired”

Yesterday, the second of two school visits I’ve now done for the Trading Places scheme organised by Oxford University took place. It involved going to talk to and do a bit of a workshop on media careers with a class of teenagers (13 - 14 yrs), alongside Syed Ahmed from The Apprentice in Birmingham (yesterday), and with Nabil Elouahabi (Tariq from Eastenders), in Manchester last month.

Trading Places is one of those schemes which probably risks coming across as patronising, but in lieu of any better ideas or wider changes in society is a well-meant and necessary attempt to bridge gaps created and maintained by tradition.
The specific aim of Trading Places is to attract the brightest ethnic minority students to apply to Oxford University, and the broader goal (one with which it’s hard to quibble) is to simply encourage bright students from backgrounds which have little tradition of applying to top universities in general to consider where a degree might take them.
I found out about the scheme in an email from the Oxford Careers Service which said that they were looking for alumni who ideally fulfilled the following three criteria:

1) That they had been state-school educated
2) That they had gone on from Oxford to an “interesting” career to which 14 year olds might relate
3) That they be from an ethnicity currently under-represented at Oxford University (from what I recall of my time there, this would include anyone who wasn’t white)

I got in touch to say I’d be happy to help, but warning them that I didn’t fulfill all the criteria. Since they did pick me, a white journalist, I’m presuming they weren’t flooded with offers of help from ethnic minority state-school educated rockstars and astronauts. I wonder whether this is because the state-school educated ethnic minorities of Oxford, an already smallish group, a) never heard about the scheme, b) don’t actually fancy being the poster child for state-schooled ethnic minority success (fair enough), or c) are too busy flying to the moon and interviewing superstars for MTV.
The day was a success, I think. I tried to convey that you don’t have to have it all worked out at 14, 18 or even 21; I hadn’t realised I wanted to work as a writer or editor until the summer I graduated. I’m pretty sure they understood what I was trying to say: university buys you time in this respect, rather than wastes it. And I tried to dispel the idea that if you do go to a well-respected university, it means you’ll be slaving away nine to five, 24/7 studying non-stop for three years. Erm, unless you take a science degree. I also talked to them about 4Talent Central and good ol’ Hotdog magazine.
Syed presented what I guess might be called the flip-side, stressing his years of hard graft in places like McDonalds (trivia of the day: he earned five stars at Maccy Ds) and suggesting they begin planning their lives now in order not to be left behind. Horses for courses, I suppose.

I didn’t have the balls to tell him I’ve never seen any of The Apprentice.