I tell them that I know everyone is not cut out to go to college. I understand that. What I tell them is, even if you go to college, you HAVE to select some type of "marketable skill" to sell to a prospective employer. Just getting a degree in something does not mean you will get a job. A lot of college kids get degrees in subjects that there are few jobs for. I tell them to research a skill that you can use, that you can sell to an employer and show that employer that you can help his business.
Even if they are not going to college, then get training in a specialized skill you can sell to the employer. Auto mechanics, electrician, plumber, etc, etc.
I also tell them that if you think you are going to make a living, raise a family, buy a house, a car, save money for the future, working at McDonald's or Burger King, then you better think again. If you do not prepare yourself for a skill that you can market, then expect to live in the poor house the rest of your life. I also recommend to them the military service for four or five years. Learn a skill there that you can use on the outside. A kid wanting to be a cop cannot be a cop on the street until he is 21 because he cannot carry a weapon. But, in the military, he can be an MP at 18, carry a weapon, gain experience, etc, and use that for a future job with law enforcement.
If is about having a skill to sell an employer that you can use for a life time. A marketable skill.
The problem with “marketable skills” is that it is too easy for companies to import workers with those skills when the American workers start having some bargaining power; to hear Bill Gates complain that Americans don’t go into computers anymore is just plain evil; his threats to move jobs to Vancouver or India if he doesn’t get his Asian slaves through the H1-B program is the reason why Americans don’t go into computers anymore.
The only decent jobs will be ones that can’t be outsourced (mechanics, electricians, plumbers, and the like); ideally, they should also be too complicated or dangerous for a 16 year-old Mexican high school dropout as well..
I wrote the McDonalds essay but lost it. here is a digest.
Go to work for McDonalds and consider it going to school.
Most McDonalds employees don’t flip burgers, they are in sales. At McDonalds if you apply your self and study what is happening you can develop a good understanding of sales and customer service.
If you clean up, study the various chemicals and cleaners. Read the MSDS documents and learn a lot about OSHA, chemicals and government regulation. Learn what they do and why they do it. Understand the process and hoe it relates to government regulations. Somewhere there are posters. Study the posters and develop a total understanding of what they mean. Learn how the government and business interact and why.
Hang out with the manager and study and learn the flow of goods. Learn the basics of purchasing. study the inventory flow and learn how inventory management keeps the company rolling.
A typical Mc Donalds store is a mega industry on a micto scale They buy raw materials hire labor and manufacture a product to very tight specifications. The process is typical of all manufacturing, only the product, the manufacturing equipment and size are different.
Then there is the matter of human resources. A one year study od the flow of people in and out and retained could result in a master’s degree paper on proper use and abuse of labor resources.
Then there is cash. A study of cash management could provide a detailed insight into cash, banking and the importance of plastic payments to a small business.
It is all there for free. as a matter of fact one can get paid while at this school. All it takes ie a proper frame of mind and a desire. Everything there is something to be learned
An interviewer will be blown out of her shoes when the lessons set out and learned are recounted in extreme detail.
I’m going to save this and continue to expand for the next time the issue is raised.