Plan C: Wake Up, Colleges!

This article is in response to “Plan B: Skip College” by Jacques Steinberg, which was published on May 14 in the New York Times.

“Plan B” details many reasons why some high school students may be better off pursuing a vocational course or apprenticeship rather than a college degree. Included among these are the high cost of time and money that goes toward college education, the urgent need for workers in many fast growing industries like nursing and customer service that require specific skill sets but not a college degree, and the fact that some students are “unlikely to be successful pursuing a higher degree” or “may not be ready to do so” and would benefit from more “credible alternatives.”

Professor Richard K. Vedder, an economist at Ohio University who advocates for the need for multiple pathways to college and career, likes to ask why 15 percent of mail carriers have bachelor’s degrees. He offers this interesting tidbit as evidence that a B.A. or B.S. may not be the best investment for many individuals based on their current profession.

I believe that the transformation of vocational education from the perceived domicile of the under-achieving that many in our parents’ generation grew up to know, to the rigorous and skills-focused Career Technical Education of today is one of the benchmark achievements of public education in the last twenty years. The multiple pathways approach is the right one, and I applaud all efforts toward creating “credible alternatives”.

But what the article misses, alarmingly, is that many students who veer toward a more vocational path are not necessarily desiring to do so. The article assumes occupational destiny where it does not exist, and exonerates colleges from their share of the responsibility.

Let’s be real: a sizable percentage of those ‘over-educated’ mail carriers had a difficult time finding jobs after graduation or did not find a suitable profession that connected to what they studied in college, found an opportunity to carry mail, realized that the money (and fresh air) was pretty good, and stuck with it. Were these students less qualified, ambitious, or knowledgeable than their peers? If there is evidence for this, it is not presented in the “Plan B” article.

And so the question becomes: what happens between graduation and now that would shift the immediate occupational focus of the average 3.2 GPA liberal arts student from writing or marketing to carrying mail or waitering/waitressing?

Life happens. We all need to earn money and make a living somehow. And after a few years on a job, whatever the job, and finding that you have a knack for it, the value of security and self-worth may overshadow the more uncertain career path. We find meaning in other places, like raising a good family and giving to our communities. And soon, $50K a year as a mail carrier sounds pretty good over the idea of starting out at $50 per article as a writer.

Is this a bad thing? In one sense no, as I believe the successful life is better measured by character and impact on the people you love rather than career. However, I believe hordes of 20-somethings leave their alma maters, find difficulty in the job market, and settle professionally, putting their career dreams on the shelves for the next generation to consider.

This can be ameliorated, at least in part. The onus is on colleges to better understand the needs of students after graduation and in transition. The undergraduate years mark the shift between schooling and career for most of us. It’s not enough to equip graduates with “transferable skills” and wish them the best. College could do a much better job supporting their students’ professional aspirations.

Alumni networks tend to fill the gaps and serve as makeshift and pragmatic career centers. But even the most robust network is not enough. Focused and realistic career planning, translating each major to a set of skills and professions, instructional support about how to utilize online professional sites like LinkedIn, and teaching students how to leverage relationships with faculty and alumni into career opportunities would go a long way.

Teaching students how to apply for jobs and how to market themselves to potential employers after graduation should be included as part and parcel of the college education. It’s at least as important as understanding Plato’s Forms and why Marxist experiments have failed.