Considering the outrageous costs of a college education....

[clarice]

I wonder if there will ever come a time when LESS emphasis is put on a degree
(discounting Doctors, Engineers, etc.) and more emphasis is given to programs that actually
prepare students to DO something when they graduate ie: trades, specialty services, etc.
It seems that a majority of recent 4 year grads are no more ready to enter the job market
than I am to fly a jet plane.

Opinions?

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. My opinion is that in the past

businesses invested more time in giving new applicants training in the very specific sorts of skills they needed for a given job. They didn't expect that they could simply free-ride, expecting to completely outsource job training costs onto applicants and the government. That would require them to actually give a crap about retaining employees, though, and not simply look for the lowest possible cost of labour no matter what, which is the current mode of 'doing business' in the modern world. No one wants to actually train brand new employees, they want to hire away already experienced workers from other companies.

[msongs]

2. solution is get your degree in India and get an H1-B visa for preferred employment nt

[dilby]

3. I don't think it will change much for Engineers.

Yes getting a degree is expensive but it's pretty much impossible to get the knowledge or experience for a lot of engineering jobs without going to College.

[RainDog]

4. young people in the US spend the first two years of college

learning things they should've learned in high school.

however, high schools have so much interference from the religious right, etc. that teachers can't tell about history, science, etc. that indicates all the lies from the religious and political right.

High schools also place emphasis on sports - becoming the entertainment centers for many small towns or suburbs, with the whole jock culture that extends from that - iow, parents waste their children's educational lives by using teenagers like small time versions of major sports.

Friday nights, of course, are more important than science or history - parents are complicit in this.

A relative of mine came to the US after completing high school in a European nation. She tested out of two years of college in the U.S. based upon her h.s. program. She attended a year here, for the experience, then went back home and got a PhD in a shorter amt of time than required in the U.S. (and works in a field that requires the same.)

When I lived overseas, those with a high school-only education were, overall, much more informed and better educated than typical b. school grad students - including people working at the green grocer.

The priorities in the U.S. are messed up because religion and conservatism are given too much authority and value in this nation.

Previously, college graduates were expected to find positions and learn on the job. Businesses no longer see this as part of their work - but no matter someone's education, when they go into a job - they will require training for that specific job.

The goal of education is critical thinking grounded in reality - the very goal of education is counter to the goal of the religious and political right. So, really, the problem is who has the authority to compel high schools to dumb down education to make certain adults happy.