One thing that seems to get drilled into us when we are at school is the idea that the best way to a skilled (and also highly paid) job is to go to university and get a degree. At the same time, however, it’s undeniably the case that the cost of a university education has shot up pretty steeply. But the question of expense is not the only thing that needs to be considered when deciding whether or not to apply to university. There’s also the matter of whether you’d be best suited to and happiest with university studies, or whether in fact you’d thrive on the challenge of going straight into the workplace.

Unfortunately, many people hold the belief that going from school to a job cuts you off from getting the best, most skilled jobs. However, the reality is that while a university education is essential for certain skilled professions, for others there are in fact other, more vocational routes in.

Don’t believe us? Well here are three super skilled jobs that you can qualify for without attending university:

1)Lawyer

The UK has a pretty flexible system of qualifications for the legal profession. Aside from the people who do an undergraduate degree in law, there are of course also the people who do a degree in a non-law subject before then doing a law conversion course. But there’s also another way into the profession that involves no university studies at all. The vocational route to becoming a solicitor is to do on-the-job training to become a chartered legal executive, a role that from early on will have you handling complex legal matters. The legal executive qualification opens up all sorts of high-powered career roles in the legal world, including positions at the biggest law firms and even judgeships.

2) Chartered accountant

Being a chartered accountant is about far more than totting up the numbers for a company. In reality, they oversee and carry out hugely complex analysis of the financial operations of companies and organizations of all shapes and sizes. As with law, you can get into the profession with or without a degree. In fact, in recent years some of the biggest accountancy firms, including KPMG, have started to run training schemes for school leavers, who end up with exactly the same qualifications as the graduates they hire.

3) Engineering

With engineers being responsible for tasks like making sure buildings don’t collapse and keeping us supplied with oil and electricity, it’s not surprising that they don’t let just anyone into the profession. However, to become an incorporated engineer–one of the two main forms of engineering credential, the other being chartered engineer–that doesn’t mean that you have to have a degree. Instead, you can work your way through the vocational qualifications of apprenticeships, gaining your expertise on the job.

None of this is to say that going to university isn’t a highly worthwhile experience. Rather, the point is that if you think for whatever reason that it wouldn’t be right for you, you don’t need to feel that you’ll be left out in the cold when it comes to gaining advanced qualifications.