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I heard a commercial on WPLR this morning for Northwest Community College that stated "70% of all jobs in CT will require post secondary education by year 2020"
This sounds really hard to believe, even if you include trade schools. This is the first I've heard of it, but if it is true I think we can look forward to wages being driven down and/or degrees being devalued.
Two links I found supporting this position quoted in part
"By the year 2020, it is projected that 70 percent of all jobs in Connecticut will require a post-secondary education."
I heard a commercial on WPLR this morning for Northwest Community College that stated "70% of all jobs in CT will require post secondary education by year 2020"
This sounds really hard to believe, even if you include trade schools. This is the first I've heard of it, but if it is true I think we can look forward to wages being driven down and/or degrees being devalued.
Two links I found supporting this position quoted in part
"By the year 2020, it is projected that 70 percent of all jobs in Connecticut will require a post-secondary education."
I wonder how they plan to handle this demand? The community colleges at least are mostly full already.
It's totally believable and expected. I've been talking about this for decades.
It makes absolutely no sense. We are simply extending high school for 4 more years and changing the definition of what is considered an "adult". 18,19,20, 21 are now considered children or "kids". Remember the Boston bombers referred to as kids? It's absurd. As more and more people go to college the degree will become less and less valuable.
I was watching conan last night and apparently the average college freshman is now reading at a 7th grade level. Crazy if true. We can easily educate people with a general education in history, science, civics, basic math/algebra in high school. There's no reason to extend GENERAL education. You have High school. You learn the stuff there so you're not ignorant and so past mistakes in history are not repeated. Your average student in college(not scientists/doctors/engineers ect) is basically just going through the motions trying to get a piece of paper to get a job. Most are not learning much of anything that they will retain. It's ridiculous. They'd mature quicker by getting out in the real world and getting an apartment/job and living as an adult. Not an extension of adolescence. It's also not a very good way to spend your time as a young adult if you're working and going to school. This should be the prime of your life. It doesn't leave much room for fun or enjoying life. We seem to be addicted to work hard play hard which simply equates to getting wasted every weekend and then working/school and burning the candle at both ends. Not a nice way to live your young adult years. Of course college students can't drink anyway freshman, sophmore, or junior years since 21 is drinking age. They're minors, unless we have a war to fight or they commit a crime. Then they are adults.
Record attendance at almost all colleges. More money will have to be put into these colleges. Eventually they will simply have to be free for everyone like high school Back during the depression you had to pay for high school. It's very hard on an economy to have a lot of adults playing the roles of children in school and not working and getting debt or relying on tax payers to fund an "education" where they're not actually learning anything they will retain or use in a job.
College used to be for smart people, but we've made it impossible to making a living without one(ie 40 year old loser at walmart you guys keep talking about) so now everyone goes. Of course the majority of jobs are still low paying service jobs and the majority of the wealth is held at the top.
Last edited by mikelizard860; 01-08-2015 at 10:30 AM..
HOUSTON— Justin Friend ’s parents have doctoral degrees and have worked as university lecturers and researchers. So Mr. Friend might have been expected to head for a university after graduating from high school in Bryan, Texas, five years ago.
Instead, he attended Texas State Technical College in Waco, and received a two-year degree in welding. In 2013, his first full year as a welder, his income was about $130,000, more than triple the average annual wages for welders in the U.S. In 2014, Mr. Friend’s income rose to about $140,000.
That has allowed the 24-year-old to buy a $53,000 Ford F-250 pickup truck, invest in mutual funds and dabble in his hobbies, such as making jet engines, including one he attached to a golf cart.
“Not everybody needs a four-year college degree,” said Kathryn Vaughan, his mother, a retired biology lecturer who spent part of her career at Texas A&M University.
The risks of a mismatch between costly university degrees and job opportunities have become clearer in recent years. Anthony Carnevale, director of the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University, said nearly a third of people aged 22 through 26 with a Bachelor of Arts degree either don’t have a job or are working at one that doesn’t require a university degree. The numbers are similar for young people with vocational degrees, but those lower-cost degrees don’t typically lead to heavy debts.
Justin Friend usually is working about 72 hours per week, making $25 in regular wages and significant overtime pay for nights and weekends. ENLARGE
Justin Friend usually is working about 72 hours per week, making $25 in regular wages and significant overtime pay for nights and weekends. ERIC KAYNE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Student loan debt outstanding in the U.S. totaled $1.13 trillion as of Sept. 30, up by $100 billion from a year earlier, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (Mr. Friend has no debts.)
High school counselors, who once almost automatically steered smart kids toward four-year colleges, now are more aware of the job opportunities for those with technical skills, said Steve Schneider, a counselor in Sheboygan, Wis. “The battle continues to be convincing the parents,” he said. “That gets easier when we start talking about money.”
Advertisement
Demand for welders has been strong in Texas for the past few years, largely because of booming energy-related industries. Some of that demand is expected to decline in the near-term as lower oil prices reduce exploration. Meanwhile, the number of qualified welders should rise. Schools in the Texas State Technical College network had 732 students enrolled in welding programs in the fall 2014 semester, up about 70% from three years earlier. For now, the college says most of its welding students secure jobs before they graduate.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there will be 378,200 U.S. jobs for welders in 2022, up just 6% from the 2012 level. That falls below the projected 11% growth for all types of jobs. Many welding jobs in the auto industry have been eliminated over the years by robots. But welders with advanced skills and experience can do very well, as Mr. Friend has found.
When he graduated from Texas State Technical College in 2012, Mr. Friend quickly found a job at Acute Technological Services, a Houston-based unit of Oil States International Inc. Acute, which employs about 70 welders, mostly does work for the energy industry. Mr. Friend is usually dispatched to a plant that makes subsea oil-production equipment.
In 2013, Acute sent Mr. Friend to work for a month on an oil project in Ghana, where he found time to visit beaches and villages and buy a carved fish. “It was a blast,” he said.
Mr. Friend, who is single, typically works 72 hours a week, usually including at least one day of the weekend, often on an overnight shift. His base pay is more than $25 an hour, up from about $22 when he started in 2012. He gets overtime after 40 hours a week. Pay is doubled on Sundays and tripled on holidays. He receives health insurance, a 401k retirement plan and paid vacation.
With little free time, expenses are low. He rents a one-bedroom apartment for $1,080 a month in a building with a pool and gym. To stay in shape for mountain-climbing trips, he sometimes runs up and down steps wearing a weighted backpack.
He showed an early inclination to make things. “At three years old, he was using a screwdriver and a hacksaw skillfully,” said Dr. Vaughan, his mother. Later, dyslexia made writing and math a struggle for him.
In junior high school, he took a course in welding. Within a few years, he was earning money repairing fences and doing other welding jobs for neighbors.
A documentary on World War II stirred Mr. Friend’s interest in pulse jet engines, which were used by Germany to propel bombs. He and his father, Ted Friend, a professor of animal science at Texas A&M, together built such an engine. “We used a leaf blower to start it,” pumping in air needed to ignite the engine, the younger Mr. Friend said. “It ran on propane.” When he attached the engine to a golf cart, he said, the vehicle proved difficult to steer after reaching 30 miles an hour.
“Mom didn’t like it,” he said. “She thought I was going to blow myself up.” One of his goals is to put a jet engine on a motorcycle, he says, adding: “I’d try to make it as safe as I could.”
On a recent day, while country music played on a colleague’s radio, Mr. Friend used gas tungsten arc welding techniques to attach two steel parts destined for an oil apparatus. Wearing a T-shirt and Wrangler jeans, he hunched over work requiring the precision of a jewelry maker. After welding, he buffed the part with a wire brush. Colleagues would later X-ray the part to make sure the weld was flawless.
The long hours mean “it’s hard to have a life,” Mr. Friend said. Eventually, he said he may pursue an advanced degree in metallurgy and research welding materials and techniques. For now, he’s building up his savings.
While it may or may not be true-- Colleges have become "big business" and are doing their best to accelerate demand. There is no better insurance against poverty than a college education and this to a large degree has become self-fulfilling. Too many people have degrees, elevating the requirements for even basic jobs that used to require no post-secondary education.
As colleges continue to inflate the importance of degrees, the actual ROI of most degrees is going down.
I saw a commercial that said I have to have a McRib. Apparently they are available for a limited time only. I am afraid of what might happen if I pass up this opportunity.
I have a BS and MBA. If I had to do it all over again I would attend a two year technical school, work 4-years as an apprentice (plumbing) and finally obtain my P1 license. I'm afraid at 28 years old with a house and fiancee it is too late for me do so that, but it really is the way to go.
I don't know your situation, but take it from me - 28 isn't too late (rhyme not intended). At almost 40, I kick myself for not going back to school @ 28 before the fiance becomes a spouse and kids maybe roll into the picture.
HOUSTON— Justin Friend ’s parents have doctoral degrees and have worked as university lecturers and researchers. So Mr. Friend might have been expected to head for a university after graduating from high school in Bryan, Texas, five years ago.
Instead, he attended Texas State Technical College in Waco, and received a two-year degree in welding. In 2013, his first full year as a welder, his income was about $130,000, more than triple the average annual wages for welders in the U.S. In 2014, Mr. Friend’s income rose to about $140,000.
That has allowed the 24-year-old to buy a $53,000 Ford F-250 pickup truck, invest in mutual funds and dabble in his hobbies, such as making jet engines, including one he attached to a golf cart.
“Not everybody needs a four-year college degree,” said Kathryn Vaughan, his mother, a retired biology lecturer who spent part of her career at Texas A&M University.
The risks of a mismatch between costly university degrees and job opportunities have become clearer in recent years. Anthony Carnevale, director of the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University, said nearly a third of people aged 22 through 26 with a Bachelor of Arts degree either don’t have a job or are working at one that doesn’t require a university degree. The numbers are similar for young people with vocational degrees, but those lower-cost degrees don’t typically lead to heavy debts.
Justin Friend usually is working about 72 hours per week, making $25 in regular wages and significant overtime pay for nights and weekends. ENLARGE
Justin Friend usually is working about 72 hours per week, making $25 in regular wages and significant overtime pay for nights and weekends. ERIC KAYNE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Student loan debt outstanding in the U.S. totaled $1.13 trillion as of Sept. 30, up by $100 billion from a year earlier, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (Mr. Friend has no debts.)
High school counselors, who once almost automatically steered smart kids toward four-year colleges, now are more aware of the job opportunities for those with technical skills, said Steve Schneider, a counselor in Sheboygan, Wis. “The battle continues to be convincing the parents,” he said. “That gets easier when we start talking about money.”
Advertisement
Demand for welders has been strong in Texas for the past few years, largely because of booming energy-related industries. Some of that demand is expected to decline in the near-term as lower oil prices reduce exploration. Meanwhile, the number of qualified welders should rise. Schools in the Texas State Technical College network had 732 students enrolled in welding programs in the fall 2014 semester, up about 70% from three years earlier. For now, the college says most of its welding students secure jobs before they graduate.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there will be 378,200 U.S. jobs for welders in 2022, up just 6% from the 2012 level. That falls below the projected 11% growth for all types of jobs. Many welding jobs in the auto industry have been eliminated over the years by robots. But welders with advanced skills and experience can do very well, as Mr. Friend has found.
When he graduated from Texas State Technical College in 2012, Mr. Friend quickly found a job at Acute Technological Services, a Houston-based unit of Oil States International Inc. Acute, which employs about 70 welders, mostly does work for the energy industry. Mr. Friend is usually dispatched to a plant that makes subsea oil-production equipment.
In 2013, Acute sent Mr. Friend to work for a month on an oil project in Ghana, where he found time to visit beaches and villages and buy a carved fish. “It was a blast,” he said.
Mr. Friend, who is single, typically works 72 hours a week, usually including at least one day of the weekend, often on an overnight shift. His base pay is more than $25 an hour, up from about $22 when he started in 2012. He gets overtime after 40 hours a week. Pay is doubled on Sundays and tripled on holidays. He receives health insurance, a 401k retirement plan and paid vacation.
With little free time, expenses are low. He rents a one-bedroom apartment for $1,080 a month in a building with a pool and gym. To stay in shape for mountain-climbing trips, he sometimes runs up and down steps wearing a weighted backpack.
He showed an early inclination to make things. “At three years old, he was using a screwdriver and a hacksaw skillfully,” said Dr. Vaughan, his mother. Later, dyslexia made writing and math a struggle for him.
In junior high school, he took a course in welding. Within a few years, he was earning money repairing fences and doing other welding jobs for neighbors.
A documentary on World War II stirred Mr. Friend’s interest in pulse jet engines, which were used by Germany to propel bombs. He and his father, Ted Friend, a professor of animal science at Texas A&M, together built such an engine. “We used a leaf blower to start it,” pumping in air needed to ignite the engine, the younger Mr. Friend said. “It ran on propane.” When he attached the engine to a golf cart, he said, the vehicle proved difficult to steer after reaching 30 miles an hour.
“Mom didn’t like it,” he said. “She thought I was going to blow myself up.” One of his goals is to put a jet engine on a motorcycle, he says, adding: “I’d try to make it as safe as I could.”
On a recent day, while country music played on a colleague’s radio, Mr. Friend used gas tungsten arc welding techniques to attach two steel parts destined for an oil apparatus. Wearing a T-shirt and Wrangler jeans, he hunched over work requiring the precision of a jewelry maker. After welding, he buffed the part with a wire brush. Colleagues would later X-ray the part to make sure the weld was flawless.
The long hours mean “it’s hard to have a life,” Mr. Friend said. Eventually, he said he may pursue an advanced degree in metallurgy and research welding materials and techniques. For now, he’s building up his savings.
Note that the kid mentioned in the article made that much money by working 72 hours a week (take note of that nep321). Sure he did very well for a couple of years but what is going to happen now that oil is dropping in price and there is no money for capital improvements in the oil industry. It happened before. The article notes that the average welder makes less than a third of what this kid made or under $45,000 per year. Still if a good welder wants to work hard, they can make some decent money doing overtime (if available) or side jobs. College is not for everyone certainly but not everyone can or wants to be a welder either. Jay
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