The path is set.  You go to high school, graduate, then go start college.  For most Americans, there’s no other real option.  However, does everyone need a college education?  Increasingly, experts are saying that not everyone needs an actual higher education to compete in the world.  For most people, vocational training and occupational certification would be better suited to their needs, rather than the current college class system.

“It would be fine if we had an alternative system [for students who don’t get college degrees], but we’re virtually unique among industrialized countries in terms of not having another system and relying so heavily on higher education,” says Robert Schwartz, head of the Pathways to Prosperity project at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.

I’ve been of this mindset for years as most people I know with degrees don’t use them.  Even strippers have college diplomas these days.  I have a college degree; in my current job, it’s basically worthless.  I have a job that only requires a high school education.  Maybe in the future the degree will help me, but for now it’s just sitting around, gathering dust, while plumbers and maintenance guys and people who didn’t spend the better part of 6 years in school make three times what I make to drive around in vans and look busy.

Tags: Harvard University, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Pathways to Prosperity, Robert Schwartz, college, higher education, post-secondary education, career education, vocational school, not everyone needs a college education, higher education and usefulness, education trends, vocational education

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