Source: peterspiro
Posted on 12/03/2021 5:19:56 AM PST by Kaslin
Source: peterspiro
Undergraduate enrollment is down 6.5 percent from 2019. But don’t panic—it’s not a bad thing. In fact, it’s an opportunity.
As it turns out, more students are opting to embark on a career right away instead of going into debt to pay for higher education. This may sound the recruitment alarms through the halls of colleges and universities, but it’s an opportunity to take a closer look at something America has known but largely ignored for many years.
College isn’t the only pathway to a successful career.
Four-year degrees are unsurprisingly losing their luster. A recent study from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) shows that undergraduate enrollments have yet to rebound after they dropped in the fall of 2020. They’re continuing a downward trend and, if the trend continues, we’ll see the greatest two-year enrollment drop in the last half century.
With the drastic changes to college life over the past two years, it’s not difficult to see why the college experience has lost some of its luster. Americans have long associated a college education with success. But the alma maters are not singing of the crippling student loan debt that accompany their promises of glory—the average total at graduation is $36,900 or about $433 per month, plus interest. In 2020, Americans owed a grand total of $1.7 trillion in student loan debt—102 percent more than a decade ago in 2010. What is sold as a guarantee of stability and success comes at a price tag that many students—and their parents—will either deal with the better part of their adult lives, or never be able to pay off.
We need more than one-size-fits all solutions. But if we’ve learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that necessity is the mother of invention—and innovation. The realization that we could turn our living rooms into break rooms, kitchen tables into study halls, and spare bedrooms into corner offices challenged the idea that a “traditional” 9-to-5 job with a 45-minute commute was the only option.
We face a similar awakening when it comes to education: “Traditional” pathways to work via a four-year degree aren't for everyone. Four years of lecture halls and term papers are a good fit for some, but for others who learn differently, prefer to work with their hands, or have different interests, college is merely a one-size-fits all pseudo-solution that lacks creativity and sets too many up for debt and discouragement.
Opportunity lies in alternative pathways to work. Young Americans need to know that there are other options. A heavy stigma has often shrouded pathways into the workforce that don’t involve college. But we can change the narrative by rallying around financial security and fulfilling careers without crippling debt rather than a college mascot.
Expand apprenticeships to move more well-trained workers into lucrative jobs, especially in the skilled trades. Apprenticeships allow individuals to “earn while they learn,” meaning they earn a paycheck while learning employable, high-demand skills in healthcare, manufacturing, construction, or information technology fields. Participants leave these programs with little to no student debt and an encouraging career outlook.
Reduce barriers to work.Nearly one in three workers nationwide needs a permit or license from the government to do their job. This may make sense in certain fields where consumer safety is a concern. But many of the licensing requirements on workers are redundant and disproportionate. States should follow the lead of Iowa and Missouri by recognizing licenses granted by other states, which reduces the redundant, costly licensing requirements professionals must surmount just to make a living.
Protect students’ right to know the costs of four-year degrees versus technical schools and apprenticeships, the true cost of student loan repayment, and what the most in-demand jobs in the state are.
The future isn’t necessarily in a four-year degree. Doug Shapiro, executive director of the nonprofit research center NSCRC, unfortunately laments that young adults are choosing work over college and implies that the success of our future workforce depends on them getting on a college track. But frankly, this isn’t true.
A bright future does not necessarily lie in the foundations of centuries-old academic institutions. Helping young people see the many futures available to them, and then equipping them with skills that are both marketable and fulfilling, will set a course for prosperity without garnishing their future with untenable debt.
Trades are great if you want to be a second class citizen, work outside or with no heat and take a shower after work not before.
Take away football, basketball, and partying, and most kids would lose interest in going to indoctrination centers.
Not this
It’s ignorant and arrogant attitudes like yours that are hastening the downfall of this country. There must be a place for you in the Biden administration. While you probably don’t have the skills, you have the arrogance.
You forgot Sex, Booze, and Illicit drugs, sleeping with your Prof for your passing grades.
Not if you become a master of your occupation and have your own business.
you are really ignorant, you know that?
Indeed, considering that the vast majority of college degrees are utterly worthless. It was not that way in years past, but thanks to the left, the humanities are now a joke, with STEM under sustained attack.
Our plumber makes more than all of the non-STEM PhDs we know.
Many of whom are currently under or unemployed.
Agreed, that was an assnine post he made, I plenty in trades who are not treated like 2nd class citizens and make good money, and plenty of 2nd class treatment in office jobs.
See my reply to him in post #7
Community colleges and trades are probably better alternatives for young men to avoid being bullied by women while at university (I speak from experience).
Absolutely, who wants to be a second class citizen plumber making $100+ thousand a year when they could work the drive thru at McDonalds with their feminine exploratory studies degree. Foolish attitude on your part.
These blue states aren't going to get any less bankrupt and can only continue in their decline regardless of how corrupted the Feds are and try to force red states to bail out blue ones.
Over $1 trillion of that debt is owed by women, during their peak child birthing years. About 25% of them resort to making ends meet by renting out their meeting end. Idiocracy, here we come.
To me, one of the telling signs that universities and colleges will lose ground to trade schools and hands-on education is the percentage of females attending universities has grown a lot.
At the University of Georgia the student body breakout is:
57% women
43% men
https://www.collegesimply.com/colleges/georgia/university-of-georgia/students/
Where are all those young men going to make a living? That my FRiends will slowly eat away at employers’ preference for the college-educated class.
And with so much automation/AI on its way, the trades will probably gain ground over the people at college who are good at memorizing things and sitting in a cubicle.
Which is a good thing: maybe we can break the monopoly of Leftist indoctrination.
What do you think, FReepers? Is my logic flawed?
Thank you for insulting my 37 year career in aviation maintenance, 31 of which were dedicated to supporting the readiness of US Navy warfighter....and you did all that in just one sentence.
Appreciate it.
Have a blessed day.
Wow, that is one of the most profoundly ignorant statements I ever saw on this forum.
Most of the “second class” citizens I know are doing pretty well. How many college educated people you know with their own private plane?
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