Good day all. For decades, the mantra to get ahead was “Go to college and get a degree.” For most of the time, this was good advice, especially after World War Two. Back then, returning soldiers used the GI bill to go to college, and they succeeded. Things started changing in the late 90’s.
For the last 20 years or so, we have seen millions of people go to colleges and universities, piling up huge debts and getting degrees that literally weren’t worth the parchment they were printed on. For the last 10 or so years, we have seen the rise of degrees in “Studies.” People with these degrees literally had no usable skills, unless they minored in something useful such as coding and computers. Now employers have decided that mandating a college degree is a waste of time. Here are the details from Fox Business News:
Employers don’t value college degrees as much as originally thought, recent survey data shows, and the disdain is behind a restored appreciation for blue-collar job-seekers that bring skill and experience over education.
I’m not surprised at this, but disappointed it took so long for employers to figure this out. I didn’t go to college, and have been working for my entire adult life. I took classes when I needed to learn something, but never bothered with College. This fact, that I didn’t go to college and get a degree in “Star Trek Studies,” has cost me potential jobs.
When asked about the “return on investment” of higher education, a whopping 67% of participating employers responded “strongly no” when asked if they believed institutions of higher education were “graduating students with relevant skills that today’s business community needs.”
“Colleges used to be a place where you would get a degree, and that would only enhance an effective human being, an already effective human being. Now we’re seeing colleges attach these degrees to people that literally can’t come out and do some of the life skills that we need.”
Congratulations. You have just figured out what I’ve known for a while. Today’s “Centers of higher learning” are nothing more then Marxist totalitarian reeducation camps, and very expensive ones to boot. Even the STEM and medical tracks are being infected with the DEI/WOKE drivel. The more prestigious and expensive the “school,” the more likely the graduates will be all but useless in the workplace.
“The talent shortage will just get worse because high schools and colleges produce no talent,” one employer said.
Another called for skills to be taught in high school, while a third responded to the survey question with “Absolutely not,” calling advanced education a “waste” from the perspective of a former college graduate.
When I was in high school, it was in a small town. Some of the skills they taught are completely obsolete these days such as drafting, but I also took classes in wood and metal shop. I haven’t done any welding since then, and frankly I sucked at it, but I know the basics.
Only 10% of participants said a college degree would make a potential job-seeker more hirable. On the other hand, 41.5% said the degree makes “no difference,” while over 40% said a college degree would make them less likely to hire a prospective applicant.
That 40% less likely is interesting. I think I know where it’s coming from. The recent pro-terrorist antisemitic protests since the October 7th attack has already cost a number of future graduates potential jobs. Potential employers are also starting to see that these people are literal precious snowflakes and expect to have things handed to them. Most have no work ethic at all.
The workplace shift away from requiring college degrees has taken hold of several major companies, including Walmart, IBM, Accenture, Bank of America and Google, as the costs associated with higher education continue to skyrocket.
More importantly, young people are learning that getting a good trade with certifications probably means making in the high 5 figures and into the 6 figures. Apprenticing and learning on the job, as well as attending trade schools means getting paid while you learn. More importantly, a lot of these jobs are open to women, especially things that require fine hand eye coordination. (Women tend to be a bit better then men on this)
Even the professional “White Collar” companies are looking at internal training as opposed to college graduates. They might bring in a recent high school graduate at the bottom rung and see how they perform. If they see talent, they will start training them and where needed, sending them to take a few specialized classes. By the time they’re in their early 20’s, they have several years of experience and a path upwards.
We’re starting to see a lot of smaller colleges and universities closing down. Their enrollment levels have plummeted as their costs and tuition have increased, and parents are looking at the curriculum and flat out saying “NO! We’re not paying for this crap!” and telling their kids to look at something that actually makes or fixes things.
Personally, I can see several education paths that can be removed from colleges, starting with anything computer related. I think medical training could also be moved out from under College and Universities and set up as a dedicated trade school for doctors and nurses, and probably for a lot less money. In the end, if things keep going the way they are, even the old Ivy League schools are going to start hurting.
Thatisall
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~The Angry Webmaster~
When I went to college back in the late 90s, I graduated with a BS in Computer Science. I learned all about how operating systems work, about how to work with assembly language, how electronics work, and generally how to program. Today, I work in IT, as a Linux sysadmin, and I use probably 10% of what I learned. Technical certifications are a lot more valuable in today’s world. I would recommend to someone just starting out that their money would be better spent getting CompTIA’s A+, LInux+, and/or Security+ (those are considered entry level, and Security+ is a must for anyone looking to work on any kind of government/military contract).
I went through the MCSE track several times when new systems were released by Microsloth. I can function in Linux, but I’m no expert. What I found was the certifications, for the most part, were not all that valuable. It was experience that mattered and the ability to learn new systems.
At entry level, trust me, you need them. They’re as important today as a degree used to be way back when. A+ was considered essential for someone looking to get into the “helpdesk” side of things when I first got it.
Once you have the experience, some places may choose to overlook a lack of certs, but when they hire you they’ll make it contingent on you getting certain certs within a certain time period. My current job saw I didn’t have Security+, so when they hired me, they said, “You have to get Security+ within 6 months.”
Yep, I do see that too. I also recall a company that had a CIO who considered anyone without an alphabet soup of certifications after their name to be a moron.
Yet his stack of certified people couldn’t get the job done. It was always the “Uncertified” people who got things done and usually for a lot less money.
As a follow up, when someone told HR that they had completed their (Choose certification), on their own dime, thinking it would get them a pay raise, usually ended up being on the next round of layoffs. (That company liked to manage through terror)