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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 29 2017, @10:43PM (3 children)
It was not done under Reagan, he defunded and ruined the more open exploration of higher education. What you're imagining happened is that defunding education caused more people to pursue apprenticeship type programs. It was supposed to be the glory of the free market for people to educate themselves. "I was self taught" well good for you, not everyone can manage that and things have gotten more complex (and simpler). You are in the heyday of the digital revolution, your hobby just had extreme market value. Superiority badge denied.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday June 30 2017, @03:56AM (2 children)
How does that work? Colleges can operate without government funding.
Apprenticeship programs aren't self-education. And let us note that post-graduate education heavily features apprenticeship programs (that is, the graduate student-advisor relationship that is widely prevalent throughout masters and doctorate programs, no matter the field).
So what? Self-learning is an important skill whether you learn it in college or on your own. Someone who has learned it on their own should get some respect for that. It's hard to do (as you say, "not everyone can manage that"). Someone who can self-learn is superior intellectually in a number of ways to someone who can't.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @05:02AM (1 child)
Colleges aren't affordable without a massive amount of financial aid and/or government funding.
Back in the '80s it was still possible to fund a college degree by just working hard in the summers. These days you can't do that. The government subsidies have shrunk to the point where it now costs far more than you could possibly hope to earn during the summer and without grants and loans you're basically out of luck.
It's even worse when you consider how many jobs have BS diploma requirements just to get an application read by a "human" in HR, let alone the actual hiring manager.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday June 30 2017, @05:43AM
Unless, of course, you go to colleges that aren't that expensive.
I'll note here that the grandparent post alluded to "open exploration" which apparently was some sort of experimentation in college that was abruptly halted by the cessation of government funding. I'd like to know more about this program or culture.