Posted on 11/01/2018 10:42:58 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
93 percent of freelancers with a four-year college degree say skills training was useful versus only 79 percent who say their college education was useful to the work they do now.
True, but you have to get hired before you can work. Every job I've had since 1990 has used a BS or MS as a discriminator during hiring.
And nobody cares where mine came from.
I went to Business Analysis back in the late 90’s for one reason: Indians were invading. While we billed out at $100 an hour, they billed out at $17.50. I needed to find a slot that required strong communication skills, something I already had in spades.
I turn 66 in just over a year. I’ll collect SS and continue to work for a while, and then I’m done. We bought a small farm in south central KY (moved from Seattle) and will pay it off, leaving us with nothing but a $450 annual real estate tax cost. We’re going as Galt as one can go without completely tuning out.
A windmill and an auto alternator can make a great power generator, BTW.
I read an article recently- maybe on here- in which a British surgeon talks about how he is beginning to see problems with surgeons-in-training due to a lack of hands-on skills for much of anything, due to the prevalence of cell phones, gaming, and so forth.
I think we need to go back, way back, and restart teaching kids things like how to tell time on an analog clock (think about it, this is a completely different skill than reading off numbers to “tell time”. Teach cursive writing again, for the same reason: it’s training the brain.
Then teach what we used to call “basic math” or “consumer math.” (Without benefit of calculators). Everybody does not need algebra; in fact, probably very few people actually need algebra.
Then, go back to courses like Home Ec and what we used to call “Industrial Arts.” Learning hands-on skills, even if those aren’t used in a career, can’t be useless and likely helps train the mind and the muscles to learn more skills.
Sounds nice!
The day will come when people who know how to farm will be worth their weight in gold.
I also graduated in 1972. In 1966, my mother took me out of Little League for the summer and sat me down at the kitchen table with her old high school typing book and a manual typewriter. Every day, I went to "Mom's Typing School" and it was one of the hardest classes that I've ever taken. By the end of the summer, I was touch-typing at a speed of about 65 words per minute.
The skill was the best thing to have all through high school, typing reports and term papers. While attending the USNA from 72-74, I earned a bunch of extra money typing term papers and reports for other midshipmen. After I left the Naval Academy, I ended up in the Army in 1975 as an infantryman at Fort Hood. Because I could type, I became the CO's driver and the company clerk as an additional duty (and if you don't think that serving as HQ security versus schlepping an M60 on patrol through the boonies of Fort Hood isn't a benefit, you've never been an infantryman).
One day after coming into work, my First Sergeant came out of his office and said, "You can type pretty fast. Go compete for this court reporter school slot at Division JAG." So I went down there and beat out all of the legal clerks in the 1st Cav Division for the slot. I ended up attending Court Reporter School in 1978 and have worked, both in the military and as a civilian, as a court reporter/stenographer since that time.
The best thing that my mother ever did to ensure my future ... and, over the years, I have apologized and apologized, over and over again, about what a disgruntled student with a poor attitude I was that summer. I should have known that I never would be a Hall of Fame catcher ...
I would say that it's more about what the degree is *in*.
"(fill-in-the-blank) Engineering"? Yep, they might know a thing or two.
"(fill-in-the-blank) Studies"? Probably not so much.
A college degree is a stand-in for competency testing, which has basically been outlawed due to the litigation-happy nature of society over the last several decades.
I took typing to fill out the schedule in my senior year.
Between typing and auto mechanics, I learned useful stuff. The rest was a comically easy waste of time.
93 percent of college-educated freelancers say their skill training is more useful in the work they are doing now than their college training.
———-
Of course... it can it get you through HR?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.