So You Have a College Degree!
For many years if a person achieved a degree from an accredited college s/he was almost guaranteed a good, better than average paying job.
Liberal arts generally refer to courses in natural sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities – contrasted with vocational, professional, or technical courses.
In the past many employers were looking to fill first-line management positions, and the pool of college graduates with liberal arts degrees was large enough to fill those positions with employees with college degrees.
In the current Information/AI Age, employers are more interested in college graduates with more specific skills. Those include accounting, economics, mechanical engineering, supply chain management, business administration, marketing, computer science and different types of nursing – including anesthesia. All these areas are projected to grow in demand and graduates hired in these areas can expect good pay now and in the future.
On the other hand, degrees in philosophy, art history, music, anthropology, communications, political science, fine arts, English literature, sociology, theater arts, history, religion and gender studies currently find it difficult to get a job which has resulted in unemployment rates above the average – some substantially above – for those graduates.
Today’s labor market for college graduates is positive for students who studied and have degrees in STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The U.S. News and World Report, for example, reports “all 10 of the college majors with the highest starting salaries based on PayScale data are in STEM fields, with computer engineering and computer science the top paid.”
As the now government-controlled student loan program largess grows to closer and closer to $2T, college graduates with degrees in areas outside those in high demand by employers and often with hundreds of thousands in debt find themselves in financial difficulty.
A recent survey by Job Site found fully one-third of college graduate employees consider their diplomas a waste of time and money, and said they could have filled their current jobs without them. Research by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York suggests those frustrations arise more from people who graduated with degrees in like foreign languages, social sciences, and performing arts, rather than in engineering and computer science.
“Majors providing technical training—that is, quantitative and analytical skills—earn the highest return, including engineering, math and computers, and business and economics,” the authors of a New York Fed report said of today’s “wage premium” dynamics. “At the other end of the spectrum, those majoring in fine arts, liberal arts, and leisure and hospitality earn relatively low returns.”
So what does this all mean for post-secondary education?
Let’s start by realizing the world has changed. Just getting a college degree no longer guarantees a higher wage. Students certainly need to realize that, but the responsibility goes further.
Colleges and universities – academia – must begin focusing on courses, studies and degrees that provide something worthwhile to their alumni’s post-graduate lives and livelihood. A degree in gender studies might sound interesting, but how does it help in the real world? Even a more basic question for colleges to ask themselves: “Are they graduating satisfied customers?” Unfortunately, too often the answer is NO. Many alumni have what are considered worthless degrees for which they are paying installments on a large debt.
Fact is over 50% of jobs in the U.S. do not require a college degree, according to the latest report by Measure of America, a project of the Social Science Research Council.
Using data pulled from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Career Institute compiled a list of 80 jobs that don’t require a degree and have an average annual median salary of more than $50,000. Some of the non-degree jobs require a bit more education or training, including apprenticeships. In real life, jobs like plumbers, heating/cooling technicians, electricians and various higher skilled workers in construction are in high demand. You know this if you’ve tried to hire one of those people in the last few years.
It’s time for our colleges and universities to commit to graduating career-ready students. In other words, educating students for meaningful jobs, then helping them get one. That should be foremost when writing the college’s mission statement. Making that promise would drastically change the curriculum and the staff delivering their products. Not to do so leaves many of their alumni ‘out in the cold without a job.’
Our community colleges went through a period when seemingly they all wanted to be 4-year degree, higher learning institutions. Current reality says they are now the perfect vehicle to provide the vocational education and training for jobs needed by local employers. Since they are in the local community it’s easy to stay in touch with the local employment situation and local folks, both employers and employees who want to enter the local workforce and/or better themselves and their families.
Further, our elementary and high schools need to ensure students are getting “the 3 R’s” and prepared to successfully enter the adult world with choices.
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Have a great and prosperous week.
Hug somebody.
References:
https://www.uscareerinstitute.edu/blog/80-Jobs-that-pay-over-50k-without-a-degree
SPIDER Bytes
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