Colleges are Destroying the American Workforce!

Well that's not exactly what they said... I was paraphrasing.

However, the people over at the Herman Group who put out the weekly Herman Trend Alert seem to think our skilled trades are suffering from "an over-emphasis on high school graduates going to university".

1st Reaction
WHOAA! What are you saying here? We shouldn't encourage everyone to go to College and continue their education? That's just wrong! That flies in the face of everything I hold near and dear! It's exactly this kind of attitude that is reason why the good ole U.S of A. is getting its tale kicked in math and science! Deep Breath. Serenity Now.

2nd Reaction
HMMMM?

3rd Reaction
You know what, this actually makes pretty good sense. What's wrong with encouraging young men and women who show interest or aptitude in these areas to go to a trade/professional school or enter an apprenticeship program. Do you know what a Construction Superintendent makes? Or a Master Electrician? Sounds like a pretty good living to me.

Two things to make this work:

1. Buy in from the High School educators and administrators, including more emphasis on career counseling and aptitude/interest profiling &:
2. Increased awareness to capture those college dropouts, the ones who go to community college or a university and decide it's not for them.

Bottom line...skilled trade doesn't mean ditch-digging.

Comments

[thebizofknowledge]

It's true that college isn't for everyone, but education is; love of learning is; wanting to be the best you can be is and so is learning to know yourself well enough to know your strengths and develop those.