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about a career path I would say, well you can either go to college rack up a boatload of student debt and maybe not find a job in your chosen field or worse yet find yourself working at Starbucks.
Or consider the trades. Minimal student debt, one to two years of education (and in certain programs, they pay you after the first year) and you can live anywhere and make good money, plus you can easily find a job. In my area electricians and plumbers make $80,000 to $100,000 a year. My auto mechanic owns four houses and he is his own boss working 40 hours a week.
I even saw an article about painters and maintenance workers in urban areas making close to $150K a year.
For the record I am a college grad. But 30 years ago having a degree was a ticket to making a good living. Not so much today. I think high school counselors are doing kids a disservice buy say you gotta go to college to make it.
School systems are changing this. At least ours is, and promoting the trades and reinvesting in vocational education is a primary goal of our governor-elect.
Not everyone should go to college.
Convincing Gen-X parents who had "COLLEGE" drilled into their own heads is the hard part. Plus you'll have to convince the 18-year-olds who grew up on microwave food and whose own parents can't even change a tire and don't know their way around their own kitchen faucets.
But 30 years ago having a degree was a ticket to making a good living. Not so much today. I think high school counselors are doing kids a disservice buy say you gotta go to college to make it.
Absolutely. For a good read, Rise of the Robots (nonfiction, well-researched) by Martin Ford paints even a worse picture for college grads. Essentially, most jobs in the next decades that we used to consider as needing a college education will be replaced by Big Data, machine learning, computers and algorithms---examples include much of the work of lawyers, radiologists, journalists, statisticians, teachers, librarians, mid-level managers, and more. It's the trades and (some) medical direct-care occupations that will survive.
---examples include much of the work of lawyers, radiologists, journalists, statisticians, teachers, librarians, mid-level managers, and more.
Many of those jobs still need human subjective decision-making and won't be completely automated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nightlysparrow
It's the trades and (some) medical direct-care occupations that will survive.
... particularly those in the geriatric field, given the numbers of baby boomers. However, this isn't exactly the millennials' preferred group to hang out with.
about a career path I would say, well you can either go to college rack up a boatload of student debt and maybe not find a job in your chosen field or worse yet find yourself working at Starbucks.
Or consider the trades. Minimal student debt, one to two years of education (and in certain programs, they pay you after the first year) and you can live anywhere and make good money, plus you can easily find a job. In my area electricians and plumbers make $80,000 to $100,000 a year. My auto mechanic owns four houses and he is his own boss working 40 hours a week.
I even saw an article about painters and maintenance workers in urban areas making close to $150K a year.
For the record I am a college grad. But 30 years ago having a degree was a ticket to making a good living. Not so much today. I think high school counselors are doing kids a disservice buy say you gotta go to college to make it.
Yep. While high demand SKILLED trades can pay more than what your average college grad makes there aren't actually that many skilled trade jobs in the labor market compared to jobs that require a degree.
I'd first find out what that 18 year old's skills and interests are. Then tailor my answer to that. It would start with what do they want to do and then which education path leads to that. The answer might be a specific trade or related trade group, or it might be a college degree in mechanical or electrical or other specific branch of engineering, or physics or specific branch of science, or one of the humanities or a business degree. There is no one answer and even saying "college" or "not college" is not specific enough to be useful.
That's one dangerous link you provided. I had to quit my browser to leave the article. My daughter has a master degree, works at a hospital in her field and makes two thirds of what a plumber makes in her town of Reno. She has a boatload of student loan debt. The plumber has little if any student debt.
I'm not talking about some hamburger flipper or laborer. I'm talking about someone who learns a skill in the trades. How many college grads do you know making $80,000-$150,000 a year? some, but not all. I'm not saying one should not get a college degree. What I'm saying is one should consider all options and not think that college is the only option to making a good living.
That's one dangerous link you provided. I had to quit my browser to leave the article. My daughter has a master degree, works at a hospital in her field and makes two thirds of what a plumber makes in her town of Reno. She has a boatload of student loan debt. The plumber has little if any student debt.
I'm not talking about some hamburger flipper or laborer. I'm talking about someone who learns a skill in the trades. How many college grads do you know making $80,000-$150,000 a year? some, but not all. I'm not saying one should not get a college degree. What I'm saying is one should consider all options and not think that college is the only option to making a good living.
We can all point to individual situations. I guess we could say that drug dealers make tons of money, so everyone should become a drug dealer.
“Go into the trades” is the new “join the Army, and they’ll pay for your education!”
It’s not for everyone.
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For a good read, Rise of the Robots (nonfiction, well-researched) by Martin Ford paints even a worse picture for college grads. Essentially, most jobs in the next decades that we used to consider as needing a college education will be replaced by Big Data, machine learning, computers and algorithms---examples include much of the work of lawyers, radiologists, journalists, statisticians, teachers, librarians, mid-level managers, and more. It's the trades and (some) medical direct-care occupations that will survive.
