Interesting Facts

Varndean College, a sixth-form college in Brighton, offered sociology students a trip to watch a football match at Millwall Football Club. (Sounds fine so far, but the field trip was for them to "observe working-class culture". A poster for the trip promised participants would be able to see “gender performance” in action, including types such as “the new lad” on show, and the chance to observe “issues around sexuality, race and ethnicity,” “women challenging gender norms” and to “even talk to football fans”.  Wow! So, if anyone tells you the class system in the UK is dead, redirect them here.)

The UK government has announced plans to spend £85m building a secure college in Leicestershire that will hold up to 320 young people in custody.. (This should go under "sad facts", because it's in reaction to the number of deaths in custody over the last 10 years.  During that time, 163 young people under the age of 24 have killed themselves in prison in the UK The secure college is planned to be the first step towards several other so called "fortified schools" that will eventually cater for the vast majority of young offenders.)

According to a report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 60 to 80% of job seekers used personal connections to get their current job. (Now these connections could be friends and family, or online connections and acquaintances. So, if you're looking for a job, get networking. John Bennett, from the McColl School of Business said, "So much of the social networking today is more about people within a smaller network, so you’re talking with the same people over and over,” Bennett says. “Good networking skills involve reaching into new networks, not just the ones that we know." And you know what we say in the UK, don't you?  "It's not what you know, it's who you know.")