[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by nostatic

At least some of the job skills necessary 10 years from now don't currently exist. Graduates need to learn how to learn, and a good liberal arts degree teaches just that. Many students however don't really understand that, and instead think that college will "get them a job." imho that isn't what college does - that's what a trade school does. And that isn't to demean trade school, as I actually think they are perhaps the most important part of the educational chain in this century if they adapt.

Nothing wrong with working in a bakery. Having unrealistic expectations of what a degree will get you, and the resulting value proposition for college - well, something can be wrong with that. I'm encouraging my son to do what he loves and also have a backup plan. But I'm also not telling him, "college at all costs." Frankly he will do just fine without it as there are a lot of paths these days. Programming skills are the "trades" of the 21st century. You don't need to go to college to learn how to code. You do if you want to design and do some of the other aspects.

A degree is useful for some, useless for others. The field these days isn't that critical, as you aren't learning your "job skills" in the classroom. It is how you think and how you present yourself. We hire a variety of tech and creative types. Some years back there was a pretty standard background. These days, not so much.

College opens doors to a career. Different degrees open different doors, you won't be considered for many accounting jobs with the aforementioned major in Latin. The big issue I see for many new grads is that they didn't consider the reality of what their degree will actually do for them. As you mentioned the value proposition is key, and many don't seem to do that math.

I wish there was more emphasis put on trade schools, particularly in high school. It seems that many look down on trade schools as being for people not smart enough to go to college, which is very unfortunate. I know many people in the trades who make wages that would put degree holding white collar workers to shame.