In light of the rising tuition fees, many young people from Sussex have told us they are considering their subject choices more carefully before applying for university.

Here trainee journalist Caroline Wilson tells us why she thinks school leaveres should not feel pressured into going to university.

Young people need to realise that going to university is not necessarily the only way to reach their ultimate goal.

And who really knows what their ultimate goal is at 18? I know I didn’t.

I was never a big fan of school and didn’t even stay on long enough to do A-levels.

By the age of 16 I’d had enough of feeling pressured by those around me telling me to “study hard” and “think about what you want to do when you grow up”.

So I decided to “rebel” against them all by dropping out and doing an apprenticeship in hairdressing.

This was much to the disgust of my school who even called me into the headteacher’s office to discuss the “shocking” career choice of this grammar school girl.

My family, though supportive, were concerned too that I was not making the right choice.

As the youngest of three children whose older brother and sister had both excelled at school and of course gone on to university I felt strongly that I would prove them all wrong.

But a couple of years down the line when I realised that hairdressing wasn’t quite for me I got a job in a call-centre and stayed there for the next five years.

After a couple more job changes and with no real career progression I decided it was time to think seriously about what I wanted to do with my life.

That cockiness I’d had as a teenager that I was independent and invincible was wearing off fast.

With regretful thoughts of dropping out of school starting to haunt me, I thought that at the age of 25 I’d really left it too late.

I’d never considered a career in journalism for two reasons.

For one, I was not confident in my own ability and didn’t believe I had what it took to be a ballsy reporter; and secondly I assumed that by not having a degree I wouldn’t be able to get onto the required course anyway.

But after a bit of research and a bit of (a lot of) push from those closest to me I applied for work experience at my local paper and, though daunting, after a week I was left wanting more.

I applied for the Brighton Journalist Works fast-track course in January this year and though still convinced that I wouldn’t be accepted without a degree they offered me a place and I started in April.

The course’s only concern was that as I’d not done any exams since I was 16 perhaps I would struggle with the exams at the end of the fast-track course.

I assured them that this would not be the case as I was so dedicated that I would do whatever it took to pass.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that several of my fellow course-mates didn’t have degrees either and I was starting to realise that perhaps it wasn’t the “be-all and end-all”.

Sure enough I passed all my exams with flying colours and though the revision was hard work after being out of practice for so long, I had the desire to succeed this time around.

So here I am now, a fully qualified journalist. An unemployed one at the moment, yes, but still qualified, with not so much as an A-level to my name.

If I’d stuck it out at school as the teachers had wanted and gone on to university I would have probably picked a completely random subject and after a lot of wasted time and money, still been none the wiser about what I wanted to be when I came out.

It took me until the age of 25 to know for sure what I wanted and though I appreciate everyone is different, I know a lot of people who have gone to university and either come out and not been able to get a job, or, ended up getting a job doing something completely irrelevant to their pricey university course.

So whilst I understand a career in journalism is not for everyone, I hope this highlights the fact that there are opportunities out there that won’t require you to go to university, especially if you don’t know what you want to be when you “grow up”.