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America has more than 6 million vacant jobs, yet the country is "facing a serious skills gap," Labor Secretary R. Alexander Acosta recently said. And last week his boss, President Donald Trump, said he wants to close this gap by directing $100 million of federal money into apprenticeship programs. Apprenticeships in the U.S. are generally known for training workers for blue collar jobs like plumbers or electricians, but with a little tweak, they could be the path to lucrative, white collar tech jobs across the country. Not just in coastal cities, but also in the Midwest, South, and across the Great Plains.
But to get there we need to erase the notion that highly paid jobs require a college degree. It's not always true. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, among others, has called for a shift in focus: "skills, not degrees. It's not skills at the exclusion of degrees. It's just expanding our perspective to go beyond degrees."
An academic degree signals to employers that a person has successfully completed a course of study, but it does not provide a clear assessment of someone's skills. Companies, especially in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) industries, are shifting their recruiting process from "where did you study?" to "what can you do?".
Germans have long cited their apprenticeship system as a factor in their economic success. Would it help America and elsewhere, too?
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Friday June 30 2017, @09:34AM (3 children)
Skimming through the comments, I didn't see any from Europe, so let me add this: Most of continental Europe still has apprenticeship programs, and they work tremendously well. Many people are simply not academically oriented, and there are piles of jobs that are hands-on.
Apprenticeships here let kids end their formal schooling in the 9th or 10th grade. They then start an apprenticeship combined with special schooling that focuses on topics related to their jobs. So painters learn about the chemical properties of various kinds of paint, electricians learn about electrical topics, etc.. The apprenticeships pretty much guarantee them jobs afterwards, because they have practical experience. Moreover, the average quality of work is massively better that you get in the US or the UK, where any idiot can claim to be a contractor.
There is an IT apprenticeship track as well. Programming is part of this, but this doesn't generally lead to software developers, but rather to your sys-admins and network-admins. The ones who really want to program wind up going back to school to get a bachelors - in the end, the formal courses on data structures, algorithms, architecture, etc. really are important for software developers.
The commenter who said something like "everybody needs a liberal arts education" is just dead wrong. Remember: the average IQ is 100. Which means that half of the population is on the left of that line. I really don't think your average IQ 95 plumber really needs to analyse Shakespeare, or is particularly interested in Greek Philosophy, or Gender Studies, or whatever. Everyone will be happier, including especially the future plumber, if the schooling offers something practical and hands on.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @02:13PM (2 children)
The average IQ 95 plumber is also a voter, and therefore should at least have enough liberal arts education to be able to make an educated vote (remember, liberal arts is not about knowing Shakespeare, but about being able to interpret texts; it doesn't really matter whether that text is a play by Shakespeare of a manifest by a political party).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @03:48PM
Ding ding ding, looks like we've got an above average person here :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @11:25PM
It isn't about being able to correctly interpret texts. It's about being able to read something into the text that isn't there, then generate a liberal (politically correct) discussion about it.
It's about liberal "art" like the sculpture that recently appeared in front of the Trump property in Chicago.
Notably, clear and rational thinking is strongly discouraged. There are questions you can't even ask, and there are many answers that you just have to take on faith. It's an awful lot like a religion in fact, but with the prophets being Marx, Stein, Moore, Chomsky...
This brings negative value to our society.