Let's start telling young people the truth about college and jobs

American Thinker ^ | 05/31/2013 | Silvio Canto, Jr.

[SeekAndFind]

A year ago, I came across Aaron Clarey's "Worthless", a book that brings you down to earth about the value of a college degree in today's marketplace. I'd definitely recommend Aaron's book to parents & high school students. It will make you think about the huge investment that you are about to make by starting college.

Young people today are finding a tough marketplace, i.e. the GDP is still weak.

We can blame the slow economy for the tough jobs outlook. However, the changes are more profound and will continue until we finally can enjoy a recovery.

As Thomas Friedman pointed out, getting a job is about bringing value not a degree to a future employer:

"Underneath the huge drop in demand that drove unemployment up to 9 percent during the recession, there's been an important shift in the education-to-work model in America. Anyone who's been looking for a job knows what I mean. It is best summed up by the mantra from the Harvard education expert Tony Wagner that the world doesn't care anymore what you know; all it cares "is what you can do with what you know." And since jobs are evolving so quickly, with so many new tools, a bachelor's degree is no longer considered an adequate proxy by employers for your ability to do a particular job -- and, therefore, be hired. So, more employers are designing their own tests to measure applicants' skills. And they increasingly don't care how those skills were acquired: home schooling, an online university, a massive open online course, or Yale. They just want to know one thing: Can you add value?""

Translation: What can you do for me, young person? Or, what can you do to make my bottom line come alive?

[wastedyears]

You don’t know how close that is to the truth for me personally, and painfully. Laid-back attitude at home, and teachers that were ineffective. From what I can remember, I’ve had 3 good teachers in 13 years of being in the NYC public education system (got left back): two were science, one junior high and one high school, and the third teacher did ESL, the yearbook, and was in charge of the Student Organization.