I am fresh out of the education system, having taken my A-levels last summer and it's quite demoralising to hear commentators and the national media constantly criticise exams for being too 'easy'.

I can confirm that studying the history of 19th Century Ireland or the Nazi economic policy is anything but easy.

A-levels do have some perks – it is quite fun to watch films in Film Studies, go on school trips to Berlin and play football with your friends in PE. But there is a lot of work involved.

Has anyone stopped to think that record pass rates could actually be down to pupils working harder and standards improving?

Instead of criticising an educational system people have no experience of, they should instead perhaps realise that maybe their taxes have been well spent on a government department that seems to improve every year.

University is a different matter though.

Lumbering students with up to £20,000 of debt is something which should hardly be encouraged.

Yes, you will probably have a good time, and yes, you will probably learn something useful but what of your job prospects at the end of it?

This has become a society that seems to delay young people from entering the working world, in pursuit of that elusive degree.

I speak from experience. I decided two weeks into a four-year degree that I was wasting my time and money, and thought more about doing something productive.

So think of me today at a Yorkshire college being interviewed and tested as to whether or not I can be accepted onto their journalism training course.

I have learned it's worth listening to yourself and what you really want to do, rather than what everyone tells you you should be doing.