{"id":851,"date":"2013-09-11T12:29:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-11T12:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/four-in-ten-college-grads-dont-need-a-degree-for-their-work.html"},"modified":"2013-09-11T12:29:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-11T12:29:00","slug":"four-in-ten-college-grads-dont-need-a-degree-for-their-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/four-in-ten-college-grads-dont-need-a-degree-for-their-work.html","title":{"rendered":"“Four in Ten College Grads Don\u2019t Need a Degree for Their Work”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

That\u2019s the headline on a Via Meadia post<\/a> about a Gallup survey (unlinked in the article) in which \u201cfour in ten\u00a0college<\/em> grads<\/em> agreed that they\u00a0don\u2019t need a college degree for the work they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The author (is it always WR Mead, or does he have minions to write? \u2014 this blog is awfully prolific) suggests that the solution lies in increasing \u201cvocational\u201d type training programs, so that not every career path requires a degree as preparation.\u00a0 But let\u2019s step back and think about the types of college grads doing non-college-requiring work:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0 individuals who studied, intending to work in a field requiring a college degree, but ended up following a different career path.\u00a0 This group includes everyone from the former liberal arts major who discovered he likes working with his hands, to woman who stayed at home with the kids and takes a low-wage flexible-hour job upon returning to the workforce.\u00a0 (That\u2019s my friend Cheryl, who works as a quilter-by-commission and a quilting instructor, even though her degree is in German Literature.)<\/p>\n

To a certain degree, this is a fairly loose category.\u00a0 What of an entrepreneur who leaves his job to start a food truck business?\u00a0 Does this work \u201crequire a college degree\u201d insofar as various intangible skills may help with running the business, or not?<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0 Individuals who, due to the poor jobs market, can\u2019t get work in their chosen field.\u00a0 What of the Starbucks barista or waitress or any number of \u201cwould you like fries with that?\u201d jobs?\u00a0 Not sure what the right answer is with respect to people in this category but this is a broader issue, perhaps, of mismatch and people preparing for, and aiming at careers with few job openings rather than looking at high-demand fields.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

3)\u00a0 Individuals working in jobs which, objectively, based on the work required, don\u2019t actually require a college degree, but, again, due to the tight labor market, employers have begun raising their expectations.\u00a0 This encompasses everything from secretaries\/administrative assistants to store managers. Again, this isn\u2019t rectified by fixing the higher education system (there are plenty of secretarial schools, and I imagine community colleges offer relevant courses of study for a restaurant manager position), but it\u2019s due to the nature of the job market.\u00a0 If employers had a hard time finding employees, rather than the other way around, they\u2019d consider candidates without degrees \u2014 and I don\u2019t think the Duke Power anti-aptitude ruling is an insurmountable barrier.<\/p>\n

Actually, I take that back \u2014 there are jobs for which there ought to be a middle ground; something more than community college but less than a traditional four-year degree.\u00a0 And there are probably other lines of work in which there isn\u2019t a 2-year program available.\u00a0 Reader(s), any thoughts?<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0 Individuals working at jobs where a college degree or other certification has been made a formal requirement by a government entity.\u00a0 This ought to be an easy fix \u2014 but entrenched interests have established these requirements and have a vested interest in keeping them.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

So there\u2019s a lot more going on than \u201ctoo many people are going to college\u201d and we should slip into facile answers to a complex issue.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That\u2019s the headline on a Via Meadia post about a Gallup survey (unlinked in the article) in which \u201cfour in ten\u00a0college grads agreed that they\u00a0don\u2019t need a college degree for the work they do.\u201d The author (is it always WR Mead, or does he have minions to write? \u2014 this blog is awfully prolific) suggests […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"Four in Ten College Grads Don\u2019t Need a Degree for Their Work"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"That's the headline on a Via Meadia post about a Gallup survey (unlinked in the article) in which "four in ten college grads agreed that\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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