It has become a traditional idea that earning a college degree could be translated into as the key to an individual’s success.
Though at some point it is true, but it is not always the case.
According to the statistics of the Department of Education, more than half of those students after high school who have taken a four year bachelor’s degree in the US would get the degree within six years.
But for those who are bottom quarter of their high school classes, the statistics are even more staggering: 80% will never get a bachelor’s degree. It is an unfortunate scenario that a lot of tuition has been spent by these students and yet no degree has been achieved to boost up their credential.
It is one of the many reasons that a group of influential educators and economists has led to another option for these students who failed to get a college degree by tapping them with an alternative towards an intensive, short term vocational and career training programs.
Based on Germany’s experience, it has been found that those students who passed the Arbitur, a qualifying exam for college in Germany, of almost no tuition, 40% chose to go into apprenticeship in trades, accounting, sales management and computer.
It has also been observed that those people coming from apprenticeship are in more demand than college graduates. The reason is probably because of its hands on training experience that they are expose to, that they can be tapped right away to the job without any further training and orientation.
According to the statistics of the Bureau of Labor, there are 30 jobs projected to grow dramatically over the next decade in the US and only seven are typically require a bachelors degree.
Of the top ten growing jobs category only two need a college degree which are: accounting and post secondary teachers.
The growth of those categories that do not require a college degree is expected to overshadow those job categories that require.
It is also interesting to note that in many surveys conducted with the employers, skills are ranked among the most desired even ahead of educational attainment.
The findings are very significant to get a good measure of how employers behave in selecting their manpower resources, however, the indicators are clear that they desperately in need of people with skills whom they can tap readily into their business requirement.