Part of the problem is that Labour seem to be of the mentality "everyone needs a degree", when they don't.
Apparently now we have Polish people coming over to do plumbing and so on, because no one in the UK bothers now. Our builder had an apprentice when he was here earlier this year, but he says there's not a huge amount of them around any more and this apprentice still wanted to go and do lots of courses at college.
I think that all degree courses taught should have to justify why they should be taught, and cut out of university if they are not deemed of any real use.
Isn't there
David Beckham studies or something?
I have a cousin (probably second cousin once removed or something) who after doing her GCSEs actually went around all the banks until she found someone that would take her and train her. She'll have 5+ years of experience over someone who is going to take a degree.
I guess the only reason that everyone goes for degrees these days is that they want to keep their options open. If you train for one thing then lose your job, it's not that easy to find a new job as you have to go into the same job (ish) again. If you get a degree, you're generally equally useless at everything, but they know that you can learn enough to be of some use [in office jobs etc]
I thought that Physics was comparitively easy at A Level. Chemistry was far far far harder - the jump is bigger.
Maths had a fair jump.
Different subjects are obviously going to be more difficult for different people - I found Maths not really that hard with a bit of effort, but I never got the hang of Chemistry or Economics. I think that many of the arts subjects are just more accessable to more people, and perhaps more common sense. The other issue is how much theory - i.e. Economics vs Business Studies.
Not taking anything away from those who are just very good at applied type things (especially graphics, which I could never do in a million years).