COST and public reality have tended to weed out the most obscure and impractical university degrees in recent years.

But, although medieval knitting and its like are no longer available in universities which have to sell a broad spectrum of relevant degrees in 2018, there is still criticism that some degrees do not equip students for realistic careers.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds is one of those who believes that students should “think twice” about automatically taking traditional degrees. Instead, he is espousing the technical route and the new T-levels and apprenticeships instead.

If you don’t know much about T-levels – I didn’t – they’re courses on a par with A levels which provide young people at 16 with qualifications in construction, digital and education and childcare. They will be taught from September, 2020 and rolled out later to cover sectors like finance and accounting, engineering and manufacturing and creative and design.

They are intended to provide a fast-track to highly skilled work.

At the same time, there are many high-grade apprenticeships on offer that also provide a direct route to better jobs with young people earning and learning at the same time.

None of this is an argument against those who see their future firmly in a relevant university degree course. The many recent success stories from the University of Bolton, for example, make this argument strongly.

And university is regularly where vital breakthroughs are made in fields like health. One brilliant example - Dorcas Ishaya - has just graduated from Bolton where she has been carrying out groundbreaking research that could revolutionise treatment for oral cancer patients. This reflects well on Dorcas and our local university.

I suppose what is really important is that young people are offered enough choices to suit their own interests and ambitions and to guide them to genuine careers.

In the past, many students have come out of university with a degree that equipped them for little in the real world. True, they had the discipline of study and the proven determination to gain a qualification. Their degree often offered entrance into a career but still put them on the very first step.

Apprenticeships offer a different but prescriptive route that definitely suits some young people better. It is that wide choice that will not only put individuals on the right path but also create the varied job wealth to give the country a strong future.