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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, April 18, 2013 | 10 T he argument, as it currently rages in the media, goes like this: decent jobs are drying up. A university education won't likely land you one of the few remaining good jobs. Therefore (holy leap of logic), a university education is worthless and attending university is a colossal waste of time. OK, let's start at the beginning. Decent jobs are indeed drying up. Economists say so and they've got all sorts of wonky stats to back them. And, if these decent jobs are indeed going the way of the dodo, then a basic university degree probably won't translate into employment. However, I have to wonder: Why a university education and degree is anything but a waste of time That's Life Andy Juniper Guest Contributor did it ever? Going back, I clearly recall a high school guidance counsellor advising: "If you want an education, go to university . If you want a job, go to college, or get into the trades." It's worth repeating: you go to university to get an education. No future promises or guarantees, just a shot at a deeper understanding of a particular field of study . And that, kids, is never worthless, or a waste of time. I am part of possibly the last generation of people who could, if they were lucky , get into a career without a university degree. I snuck into journalism right out of high school. When I was hired by a Toronto daily after a few years of seasoning at small-city papers, I was told I would be the last person he ever hired without a degree. While I was shinnying up the newspaper chain, my future wife was in university , earning a BA in English, followed by a journalism degree at college. The economy was in the dumps at the time and neither degree scored much employer interest, let alone a job in her desired field -- similar to today . Subsequently , she worked as a secretary at a public relations firm and now she coowns a PR company . You know , even when she couldn't find a job in media, she never regretted the time she'd spent working to get those degrees. Honestly , I have yet to run into anyone who regrets the years they spent in university . There was a brief period when my future wife was envious of me. I'd managed to sneak in through the back door of the very field she couldn't break into with two degrees. Alas, there has never been a time when I wasn't envious of her, her university degree, and the university experience she so treasures. It's true: your basic university degree probably won't secure you the keys to the executive washroom, but don't let anyone tell you that a university education is worthless, or that earning a degree is a colossal waste of time. -- Andy Juniper can be contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, on Facebook, or followed on T witter @theSportJesters.