In the wake of this year’s A-level and GCSE exam results, our columnist Josh Moreton shares his story – and delivers his blunt verdict on the UK’s “obsession with grades.”
Eleven years ago, my exam results landed without me. I was on holiday, so I never had that rite-of-passage moment of nervously tearing open the envelope in a sweaty school hall.
No staged photo clutching a slip of paper – just a patchy phone call from my nan confirming the inevitable.
For those who know me, you’ll know I checked out of the education system early.
‘C in English was my finest hour’
My academic career peaked at GCSEs.
My proudest? A C in English. For a dyslexic kid written off for English, that felt like Everest. (I’m still not convinced my teacher didn’t slip someone a fiver.)
But here’s the thing: the obsession with grades is a con. We’ve raised the school-leaving age, pushed the herd towards university and convinced ourselves that letters and numbers on a page define intelligence.
They don’t.
I’ve gone on to carve out a good career without them – running hundreds of political campaigns, working for an MP, advising international government and building businesses from the ground up.
Along the way I’ve met extraordinary people, many with no qualifications at all, whose ideas and instincts outstrip any degree.
Employers saying ‘degree required’ – think again
The smartest currency you’ll ever have is how you apply yourself, how you think, how you keep learning long after classrooms fade. That’s the real education.
And to the employers still slapping “degree required” on job ads – stop being stupid.
It’s lazy. It’s unimaginative.
And it locks you out of some of the best talent you’ll ever meet.
Life doesn’t reward what’s written on paper. It rewards what you do.
