Student loan debt today stands at around $1.3 trillion. Studies show that many college graduates in their 30s and 40s will have a lower standard of living than their parents and be unable to buy homes because of one thing: student loan debt. Seventy percent of all jobs require a two-year degree or less, yet we hang around the mantra that career and academic success depend on attaining that proverbial four-year bachelor’s degree. In other words, we are encouraging our students to mortgage their future for a college degree that might not be necessary. Why?
Manpower’s annual talent shortage survey lists the top 10 jobs that companies can’t fill. Most require a two-year degree level of education or less. A report on the skills gap from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee shows that 70% of potential job openings in Wisconsin through 2020 will require an education level of a high school diploma or less, and then goes on to say, “even if all unemployed people fit perfectly into existing jobs, more than 2/3 of all unemployed people would still be out of work. Why?
When I speak in high school career planning classes, I ask if anyone is considering a degree, diploma, or two-year apprenticeship. Five to six percent of students answer “yes.” The rest of the students indicate that they are looking for universities that offer four-year degrees. Then, whiteboard your career areas of interest. Ninety-five percent of them would require only a two-year degree or less to enter their chosen field. Only 7 to 9% of high school graduates enter a technical college. The average age of a technical college student is 30 years. Why?
In Milwaukee, certain demographics have unemployment rates between 30-50%. Employers are hungry for qualified employees. Technical colleges can’t attract enough students to meet the industry’s demand for skilled workers, and enrollment is down more than 10% at Wisconsin technical colleges. Why?
For years, we’ve told students to stay away from careers in trades, manufacturing, customer service, and information technology because they were being outsourced or dead-end jobs. All of them are now at the top of the Manpower Talent Shortage Survey. We tell our kids throughout their K-12 years that they need a college degree to be successful. You even hear, “in the future, every job will require a college degree,” even though the data doesn’t support it. Why?
Students choose majors for the wrong reasons. His father was an accountant; he looked great on tv; he pays a lot of money, not because it matches his interests and personal attributes. My classes are filled with students with college degrees who didn’t like their career choice or who now need the practical skills to get a job they didn’t get with their current degree. That is nothing but nonsense and very expensive! Seventy percent of all American employees go to work every day at a job they don’t like. Why?
As stand-alone sound bites, the statements above are just that, but when you put them together, they take on a completely different context. Why are we pushing our kids to get four-year college degrees when most current and future jobs will require a two-year degree level of education or less? We all assume that a four-year college degree will be a badge of success, but for many, it will be a ball and chain that they carry with them for life.
We need to rethink the whole notion of higher education, its value and who really needs it. Not everyone needs formal education after high school. We need to look at the academic and career planning processes our schools use to make sure that parents, students, and counselors truly understand the educational and career landscape, its options, costs, and timelines. We need to make sure students know which careers match their personal attributes and encourage them to pursue careers in these areas. Students must understand the job market, which careers are in high demand and which are long-lived. Today’s graduates will work more than 50 years before they can retire. We need the industry to step up and invest in more internship, job shadowing and student sponsorship opportunities targeting areas with high unemployment and high schools where students have literally been brainwashed since kindergarten than a college of four years was his only hope of success.
Finally, students need to understand the concept of a career path: starting with a two-year degree or diploma, gaining work experience, pursuing higher education (preferably employer-paid), taking on more responsibilities within the workforce, earning more money, and continue. goes. It’s called lifelong learning. Remember, it doesn’t matter what kind of degree you have or where you’re from: if you don’t have experience, start at the entry-level position, as no one starts at the top. Therefore, aim for the minimum education necessary to land an entry-level job within a field that matches your personality and interests. Don’t drink too much on the student loan and don’t get too educated.