According to a recent YouGov SixthSense report, the debt of UK university students adds up to nearly £20bn. Students starting university this year could end up paying a whopping £60k for their education. Having graduated myself just a few years ago, the prospect of paying three times the amount my Mum paid for her first home may have been enough to put me off going altogether.

Unfortunately, going to university has become a compulsory next step in life after college and is still cloaked by the common illusion that it will lead to a more stable and prosperous life but the cold hard truth is that most graduates leave university ill-equipped for the world of work.

Although University may have led me to a job on paper, most of the skills I now apply to my work life were honed on the job and through extracurricular online courses. In a world where technology impacts every industry, universities are constantly playing catch-up and so what you learn in your first year tends to be obsolete by the last. The internet, on the other hand, is being updated on a daily basis.

Years of education inflation has forced young people in to taking on huge debts just to aid the system in classifying who is the next Yes-man is- but things are changing.  It’s said that by 2020 40% of Americans will be freelance. The economy is slowly moving away from the industrial system and moving back to one that rewards the individual.

Sir Ken Robinson recently stated that, “When students are motivated to learn, they naturally acquire the skills they need.” Young people have spent too long trying to please the system at the expense of harnessing their true passion for learning.

“The pinnacle of education should revolve around learning and gaining knowledge.” – Michael Karnjanaprakorn (CEO Skillshare)

I’m currently in the process of finishing an online course on Skillshare called, “The Ins and Outs of Illustrator,” I get to turn up to class when I decide and learn from someone I may never meet but, best of all, I can’t fail because there are no tests. The course won’t guarantee me any future income and I won’t gain any formal accreditation to add to my CV. I’m learning because I’m curious, and because I can (and because it was only $15). That’s the power of the Internet. When you’re learning out of passion money becomes a by-product of your craft. If you’re studying just to tick someone else’s boxes, don’t be surprised when things don’t work out.

Be curious. Learn for fun. Find a course on Skillshare today.