Imagine going to college for a four-year degree, graduating with enormous debt, and realizing you lack the skills for gainful employment. What are your options?
One is to go back to a community college or training program to acquire marketable skills.
That’s happening to an increasing number of people. This week I came across a thoroughly reported and remarkable story in The Hechinger Report that illustrates this phenomenon in stark terms, and with several real-life examples.
The story quotes one current community college student with a BA saying: “You can get a good job without a bachelor’s degree. You don’t need to go to a fancy school. You don’t need to spend a lot of money. But how would high school me know that?”
Don’t get me wrong. There is much to be said for a four-year college education, and learning for learning’s sake. But increasingly, it’s an unaffordable luxury. Is it worth six figures worth of loan debt to study philosophy or even political science?
The Hechinger story makes a few key points that we should all bear in mind during the current Age of Agility.
First, parents and schools alike would be well advised to abandon antiquated thinking about how four-year college is the only road to social mobility and prosperity. “…many high school graduates almost reflexively go to college without entirely knowing why, pushed by parents and counselors, only to be disappointed with the way things turn out — and then start over,” the story says.
“Even among those who manage to finish, more than 40 percent of recent graduates aged 22 to 27 are underemployed.”
Second, other pathways offer stable, well-paid careers. “Nationally, median pay for a construction manager is $95,260, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics; an aircraft mechanic, $64,310; a web developer, $73,760; and a dental hygienist, $76,220. Plumbers make a median of $55,160, and the top 10 percent take home $97,170; firefighters, $50,850, rising to $92,020 for the top 10 percent.”
Third, it is true that people with bachelor’s degrees generally earn more than people with lesser credentials — $19,000 per year more than associate degree holders at the peak of their earning years. But, the story points out, part of this might be blind bias against people who don’t have four-year degrees. It cites a study from the Harvard Business School that found employers “often prefer candidates with bachelor’s degrees, even for jobs that previously did not require them.”
The current pandemic, during which many pricey colleges are charging their exorbitant full tuition for online-only experiences, provides a golden opportunity for us collectively to pause, take a deep breath, and reconsider.
Tuition costs at four-year colleges are a runaway train imperiling the future of millions of young people. I’d expect more people to follow the lead of people quoted in the Hechinger story and jump off that train and try a steadier, surer journey to success.