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At heart, I think the problem is the belief that a job like software developer is fundamentally different from a job like machinist.

You can have a nice career programming in FORTRAN -- until they want you to learn C. That's a new skill, and tough for some people to learn. But, if you bear down, you can learn C, and have another nice career in programming -- until they want you to learn Java. Now, we're talking Object-Oriented programming and a lot of people just never grasp it. But maybe you can learn it -- until the next language comes along.

Not to beat a dead horse, but you can be a good Sys Admin in UNIX, but if your company switches to Windows with Active Directory, you have a lot to learn. Do you go back to college? Nope. You learn it on the job.

If a machinist finds his skills becoming outmoded, does he have to change careers? Go to college? I don't think so. I think college is one way to give people job skills -- but vocational education, with on-the-job training is probably more effective for a whole lot of careers (both blue collar and white collar).

vocational education, with on-the-job training is probably more effective for a whole lot of careers (both blue collar and white collar).

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But who gets the promotions, the tech school graduate or the MBA? Graduating from a tech school is viewed as a stigmata the same as being an enl;isted man in the army. The chances are .001 of becoming major.

While I think you make ten or twelve excellent comments, one thing I learned a long time ago about college; the point of college is rarely to teach a person a trade but to teach them how to learn.

The exceptions are careers like doctor, lawyer, engineer and some other fields, but many famous people have a business or a history degree from a small college that taught them to think. I do not think you must have a degree to do that but some people can't learn to learn without the 4 years of discipline.

Your point and mine will be where people have so many problems in the future, will they learn on the job or will they choose a learning institution ot start them? That will be the challenge of education, not how to teach but how to explain the purpose of their school...voEd or college.

My experience was in CAD/CAM, specifically in I.C. layout design. Where did I go to get my initial training in this field? From companies that needed people and were willing to train newcomers. When I started out the standard procedure was to find new people who expressed interest in the field, give them an apititude test, then spend a couple of months training them before sending them into the lab to start drawing things.

My motto at the time was "anything that someone is willing to pay me to learn is something worth learning". That motto served me well for years. Nowadays this is no longer done, the companies just help themselves to a fresh heap of FOB (Fresh Off the Boat) engineers and put them to work. I can't help but think that we have lost something good because of this trend. If I had not had the opportunity to get into I.C. design when I did, who knows where I might have ended up? Probably in some dead-end clerk job, or flipping burgers. The kids of today are just screwed.