Posted on 11/15/2018 4:53:16 AM PST by SJackson
placemarker
I wish the US would embrace this stuff.
College is important for the medical field, and engineering, and perhaps some other areas. But most people would be happiest doing basic work, keeping the world running. And the folks who end up in cubicles (like me) can usually learn the job while doing the job. Most work today isn’t rocket science.
A lot of kids graduate from college with $100,000 worth of debt and a have careers pouring coffee or acting as a glorified file clerk in little gray cube. Vocational education would be a better path.
Agree. Or at least a more employment focused culture in academia. Despite the fact that the instructors have jobs.
I also liked the concept of proceeding to college after vocational training and work. Like going to college after military service. I’ve never seen a statistic, but I suspect a breakdown of majors of veterans vs those entering college after high school might be very different.
I agree 100%.
Attitudes are slowly changing. We know a lot of people in the homeschooling community. It’s amazing how many graduates are going into the trades rather than traditional college.
One of my four kids did the traditional college route to his bachelors. Two are slowly completing it online and paying as they go.
Number four got his CDL and is a truck driver.
The one with the bachelors is an aerospace engineer. His debt is manageable both because he borrowed very little and he has an excellent income and lives frugally.
His part time college job, in his field even had educational reimbursement and paid enough to cover his last year of school.
I truly believe that kids, especially young men need to seriously look at the skilled trades. I work for a building material manufacturer and virtually every meeting I go to with customers includes discussion on the labor shortage. Qualified plumbers, framers, HVAC tech and welders should be able to write their own ticket.
The USA is one of the worst countries in the developed world to be young, not well connected, and just starting out. This is a nation of cutthroats. It wasn't always like this.
Right after classes started (at night, BTW), he got an apprenticeship with a local company making $15 an hour.
He recently graduated from the diesel mechanic program and got a raise to $30 an hour.
Because his employer has a big backlog, he is working every Saturday for time and a half plus an extra hour a day during the week.
He's going to make over $80 grand this year and he is only 19 going on 20 years old.
BTW, he just bought a nice home with a workshop and garage building behind it. He is starting to buy diesel pickups that he can repair and sell in his spare time. His employer encourages it and let's him buy the parts he needs from company vendors at their prices.
My parents always taught me that anyone who earns an honest living is worthy of your respect.
Somehow along the way we as a society lost that, causing people who take jobs in the trades to feel like second-class citizens. They shouldn’t. My carpentry skills are so bad I can only look at them with awe.
Yes, Switzerland has apprenticeships. We used to have them, but then idiotic laws came into play, and prevented anyone from teaching a minor on the job (”child labor laws”) and kept them locked up in a boring sissy room all day (”public school”).
Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs) has been promoting this in the USA for years! He has a jobs program for it. Look him up!
similar to what was informally in place here until the 60’s.
Goals 2000 and Clinton took training out of the hands of Voc.
Goal 2000 plan was to overtake all education and certifications.
Clinton gave them the means by holding out monies to voc programs which became “colleges”.
How come? Sigh.
Yeah, that’s the ticket to Switzerland’s success.
Sure it is.
I remember back in the 60s when I was in high school we had a whole wing dedicated to vocational training. It’s since completely shut down. Now it’s suddenly a big new idea?
I have been told that the US has tried to do this in the past. However the adversarial relationship between US unions & US companies makes it impossible. Neither side will cooperate enough to make it work.
“Parents would find it degrading...”
That illustrates the problem here too, after years of having the mantra “College for all” shoved down our throats - what has that accomplished other than enrich colleges and real estate developers who can’t even keep up with student housing demands for luxury apartments, thanks to student loans. What a racket. Then some kids with 6-figure debt end up spending their first 2 college years in remedial classes.
I wish the US would embrace this stuff.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocational_education_in_the_United_States
You do realize that unions are almost dead? Only 7% of the private sector is unionized.
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