What exactly are degrees for? (SAT, computer science, skills, doctorate)
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It used to be that you could get hired or whatever without one and instead they went by experience. Now, they want one but they mostly STILL want experience plus one. So what is their value?
Are there times where you think that someone could probably teach themselves and demonstrate competency to an employer WITHOUT having to spend thousands and thousands to get one and that said degree is little more than a higher education money-making racket?
Or that degrees are used by the government, etc, to control people and aren't often as needed as they are required.
It makes sense to require degrees for medical stuff and that we may be a bit wary of someone being self-taught due to lives being at risk if someone is incompetent. On the flip side, many people have self-taught themselves IT things and may well know more than a fresh graduate with a degree yet they end up being passed over for a job because they do not have said degree.
(BTW, since degrees are an "education" thing, I put this in this section. If mods think this should belong in "Work and Employment" or "Politics and Other Controversies" instead, please move this instead of just closing it like last time when you thought one of my threads would belong better in the politics section.
Thank you.)
I agree with you, OP. So many people have bought into the lie that degrees are needed for every little thing. What on earth does a receptionist or an insurance broker need a degree for? The problem is that because so many have accepted this nonsense, it can be more difficult to get a job if you have not gotten a degree.
I will say, though, that you can actually get many jobs that say "degree-holders only" without having a degree. If you have equivalent experience, it can be done. This is obviously not the case if you're trying to become a doctor or teach at a public school, but if you're trying to go into IT, marketing, hospitality, or other types of fields where you don't really need highly specialized knowledge or a particular license (or that the government is not the entity requiring the degree), you can freelance for a while and then get yourself into an employment situation if you so desire. You just have a lot more working-your-way-up to do than you would if you'd sat in classrooms for four years. Such is life.
It's simple. Don't want a degree? Then don't get one. And don't complain about those who do. Everyone has a choice so why complain that others made a different choice than you?
That is the conversation. Perhaps hidden but still the driver. Because there are plenty of fields that don't require a degree. Skilled craftsman is but one example I work with everyday. And they pay very well. But even those fields require training and apprenticeship. What the unspoken complaint is the expectation people can just walk out of high school and into good paying career paths just, well, because. The days of getting hired on to a high paying union job at the factory and working up are over. Whether it's craft or business or engineer or something else, you have to at least have the minimum entry knowledge.
What an undergraduate degree should provide you with in my opinion is evidence that you can study a subject and learn new things, work within a structured system of requirements, think through a problem logically and evaluate solutions, and (hopefully) communicate effectively verbally and on paper. It was never intended to be a "job training program".
The exception is things like a pre-med or engineering program, where the undergrad is learning the basic skills and knowledge needed in a specialized field where a Master's or Doctorate is required. When I did my MS in computer science back in the 80s, I had to provide evidence of mathematical training through differential equations to be considered for the program. When I did my MA in clinical psychology for my second career in the early 2000s, I had to take undergrad psychology courses equivalent to a major before I could be accepted in the program.
It's equivalent to an internship in the trades, as tnff was saying. Though in clinical psychology, you have internships during and after your formal classwork as well. And to get licensed, I had to demonstrate X number of hours of experience working with patients as well as Y number of hours under supervision.
You can't get a decent job in a field like clinical psych without an advanced degree. Period. You can do so in a field like IT, perhaps, but you're going to have to demonstrate skills in some other way than presenting a degree and coursework from a program. And whether or not you have a degree, you can't expect to make big bucks out of school without paying your dues (which is I believe the same in the skilled trades). Why so many young people don't seem to understand this is beyond me.
It used to be that you could get hired or whatever without one and instead they went by experience. Now, they want one but they mostly STILL want experience plus one. So what is their value?
Are there times where you think that someone could probably teach themselves and demonstrate competency to an employer WITHOUT having to spend thousands and thousands to get one and that said degree is little more than a higher education money-making racket?
Or that degrees are used by the government, etc, to control people and aren't often as needed as they are required.
It makes sense to require degrees for medical stuff and that we may be a bit wary of someone being self-taught due to lives being at risk if someone is incompetent. On the flip side, many people have self-taught themselves IT things and may well know more than a fresh graduate with a degree yet they end up being passed over for a job because they do not have said degree.
(BTW, since degrees are an "education" thing, I put this in this section. If mods think this should belong in "Work and Employment" or "Politics and Other Controversies" instead, please move this instead of just closing it like last time when you thought one of my threads would belong better in the politics section.
Thank you.)
It demonstrates you have self discipline to stick with something long enough that it means something.
I'm a baker by trade, a damn good one.
I see the kids coming to work with degrees and it takes a heart of stone not to laugh.
Some things are not academic, they cannot be learned in a classroom.
If you don't like it, start a business, I did 30 yrs ago.
There are people with degrees up the ying yang who would give anything to have my job.
Not everything that counts can be counted.
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