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A computer science degree at University will not teach you 'working skills' for the software world, you only get those from working on software with a team. I started my first job as a part time software developer at a local company in my last year of highschool and I'm now working full time at my second software company (And I'm only 20), I attended the first year of a computer science degree through my highschool which is the only higher education experience I have. As long as you demonstrate the ability to learn I think you would do fine at a software company, it's definitely something I would investigate before committing to university.

Now this is only my perspective as someone living in New Zealand, I'm not very familiar with the UK. But I think it would still be similar in the UK.

P.S I feel I should disclose that I am biased against universities, none of my friends have gone to uni and my flatmate is in the same situation as me. I don't really believe in the reasons most people go to university, I certainly don't think it's a decision someone should make coming out of highschool.

I strongly suggest getting a degree. Not having a degree if your alternative plan goes wrong will suck hard. Employers want a degree. Immigration agencies want a degree. The only people who don't care about a degree in most circumstances are customers.

If you were going to take a gap year anyway you could look for an internship gap, or do a bootcamp like general assembly in London or Iron Yard in Madrid/Barcelona and then intern/freelance.

This is not a defence of mass undergraduate education. I believe the social value of that is, and that the credentialism it enables is a cancer. The private returns are great though.

If you never find yourself broke and looking for a job, any job, if your career is basically uninterrupted starting from the tech space, skipping university to go straight into work will be fine. If you save a lot while working you should also be fine. You can go back to school when the economy disappears for three years if you want to.

You are unlikely to be as special as you think you are. Having a degree signals conformity, conscientiousness and intelligence. Employers really like all three. Don't commit to anything. If a gap year works out great keep going but not having a degree turns some jumpable barriers into climbable ones and makes some climbable ones impossible.

> My thought has always been that these kinds of 'working' skills are what you get at university, but really I have no idea.

You will not. You will acquire those working skills in the course of the profession. A degree program may expand your academic knowledge of computer science, and attendance at a university will provide networking opportunities where you will meet people and be exposed to new ideas, but it will not teach you to be a tradesman.

If you want to be a trademan (specifically, a programmer), you need to start working in that trade - find a job as a junior programmer. You'll learn more relevant to your desired career there than you possibly could at university.

This is one opinion. Please get counter-opinions for balance.

IMO only mugs and rich kids go to university in the UK now.

I doubt you'll get working skills at uni. Depending on the course, you're more likely to get mind-broadening introductions to CS ideas and techniques you're not yet familiar with - hard stuff about algorithms, difficult languages you wouldn't usually touch, and the like.

But you don't get actual work experience unless you do a course with a one-year industrial placement.

At best you get solo and group practice projects you can maybe showcase to employers.

But - here's the thing. With GitHub and StackOverflow you can get similar project experience working from home.

And academically, there is nothing at all you can learn on a CS course you can't learn from books and the Internet. You may have to find and buy a few expensive books - but you'll have to buy the books anyway.

Three years from now everyone else will be leaving uni with no practical job experience and three years of debt. You have the potential to have zero debt and one, two, or even three years of practical experience, having built a solid project portfolio that should at least get you on a shortlist for many jobs.

And if you're interested in startups and business, you're much better off getting into that as soon as you can.

Assumption - you're fine with working hard. If you just want to sleep all day, this plan won't work.

There are three downsides. One is that some tech jobs specifically demand a degree. Depending how stupid the company is, HR may specifically filter out non-degreed applicants.

That's definitely a downside, but it's only some employers,

Another is that uni gives you networking opportunities and personal friendships you won't get at work. Some can last a lifetimem. They certainly have a personal value, and in the top-rank unis they have financial value too. (To be blunt about it.)

But if you're applying to Average Uni of Middleshire I'm not sure they're worth three years of debt and the lack of cash later when you're (e.g.) thinking about buying a house.

The final downside is that you have to look at the quality and location of the work you can get now. If you're in London or a tech hub like Cambridge, it's worth considering. Likewise Bristol, Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, and so on.

Also, international remote. Well worth exploring.

Smaller towns - not so much. I'm sure there are small-town jobs with a future, but personally I've never seen one advertised anywhere.

So this only works if you have a realistic chance of a job with some prospects. If it's a crappy timewasting job where you learn nothing and get paid peanuts - no.

Of course you have to avoid those later too. They don't go away just because you have a degree...

tl;dr - if you decide you absolutely have to have a degree, you can always get one later. But the loan is a huge downside, and it can cripple your choices later.

It's smart to at least think about avoiding it. If you decide in the end it's worth the cost, you'll be making a conscious decision, not just following the herd.

I'd keep applying, just because. But unless things have changed you're not obligated to start a course until you sign up for one. So even if you get offers, you can look around for jobs for the next few months and not sign up for a course if you find something with prospects.

There is no GitHub or StackOverflow for mechanical engineering, civil engineering, high-voltage electrical engineering, biotech lab work, etc.

Would you hire an accountant for your business who was just enthusiastic and good with Google?

You know there are other degree programs other than CS at most universities right?

It's true those all have better reward profiles than CS. But I'd still consider an apprenticeship instead of a degree for civils and mech eng.

>Would you hire an accountant for your business who was just enthusiastic and good with Google?

Oddly enough I taught myself basic biz accounting using enthusiasm and Google. The wheels haven't come off yet, so it may not have been a total failure.

Bio lab work you can do from school. Bio innovation is a whole other thing and you'd certainly need a good degree for that, if not a PhD.

But OP specifically mentioned computing and showed no interest in civils, elect eng, bio, etc. So snarky comments about not knowing that other options are possible are perhaps misplaced.

Also, I remain unconvinced by the quality of much degree-level education in the UK. The mid-lower market seems more about getting bums on seats, and high value degrees are not so easy to find. With so much competition from (rich) fee-paying foreign students they're even harder to get onto.