College Isn't For Everyone
This is a terrific alternative that I hope goes wide.
At FEE, Brad Polumbo writes:
The average American college student graduates with $30,000 in debt, and the cost of college has more than doubled since 1985 even after accounting for inflation. Unfortunately, due to a lack of other options, many students feel forced into this expensive system even when they can't afford it or don't really need a traditional college degree to pursue their future goals.But an apprenticeship program recently profiled by the Wall Street Journal could offer an example for future programs to follow. It shows how to offer accessible, affordable, and practical jobs training to the millions of young people our current higher education system is failing.
Known as "FAME," the Federation for Manufacturing Education, the program was founded in 2010 by manufacturing employers struggling to find suitably skilled employees. It now works with community colleges and almost 400 employers across 13 states.
"Students of FAME--a mix of new high-school grads and older factory workers well into their careers--typically spend two days a week in class and three days on the factory floor, earning a part-time salary," the Journal reports. "They learn to maintain and repair machinery; traditional subjects such English, math and philosophy; and soft skills such as work ethic and teamwork."
"After earning an associate degree, most work full time for the factories that sponsored them," the report continues. "FAME graduates fill what might be called 'grey-collar' jobs, which involve both traditional blue-collar manual labor and the kind of critical thinking and communication typically associated with a four-year degree."
The Journal profiled one man who benefited from the program, Ricky Brown, a father of two and highschool drop-out. He went through the program a few years ago and now earns $72,000 annually working at an aluminum factory.
"I wanted to show my kids anything's possible if you just want it and try hard enough," he said.
Brown is not an outlier. Rather, his success story is emblematic of the program's broader results. A whopping 97 percent of FAME graduates said they made the right decision by participating, and 81 percent of graduates said they would recommend it to a friend.
This stands in stark contrast to some types of traditional higher education. An astounding 75% of humanities majors and 73 percent of social science graduates regretted their education, according to one Payscale survey.
As I recall companies had to ditch these programs due to frivolous racism lawsuits as some dumb lazy people were incapable of doing on the job training so they all decided to require a college degree and used that to cull the useless assholes
lujlp at October 22, 2020 12:10 AM
Wow. Makes me wonder if you've heard of this guy!
Radwaste at October 22, 2020 5:38 AM
This is great. Good vocational training is the best option for most children. They should expand it to work with high schools.
Curtis at October 22, 2020 10:06 AM
There is so much status seeking but not everyone can be a novelist or movie star. Many who go to college now simply aren't smart enough to do the work. I think this has contributed to the rioting: young people feel misled and hopeless. Of course it is their own fault for not thinking for themselves, but they were discouraged from doing that too. Around here the trades-people drive pretty nice trucks. Lots of kids have never done any manual labor and look down on it.
cc at October 22, 2020 11:38 AM
2 words. Mike Rowe
Earl Wertheimer at October 22, 2020 4:20 PM
"the kind of critical thinking and communication typically associated with a four-year degree"
Yet the evidence that the typical 4-year college actually *develops* such abilities (as opposed to merely certifying abilities that an individual already has) is pretty scanty.
David Foster at October 22, 2020 5:23 PM
5 words. Mike Rowe for President 2024.
Joe J at October 22, 2020 6:26 PM
Neat comments in here. It's great to see evidence that higher ed in the States might soon see profound restructuring.
Crid at October 22, 2020 6:43 PM
Peasants can live without kings, but kings can't live without peasants.
Speaking of that, here's the last "chapter" of a story retold by Leo Tolstoy (it's only two short pages):
https://books.google.com/books?id=ClOcAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA177&lpg=PA177&dq=%22started+working+with+his+head%22&source=bl&ots=fU1PpEVJRC&sig=ACfU3U3Xo_jlziV1eRhQLMqGrz9BhJ3rZQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiFxtaHm8vsAhVlmuAKHUWMC8gQ6AEwA3oECAIQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22started%20working%20with%20his%20head%22&f=false
Lenona at October 23, 2020 10:18 AM
You can read the whole story here - it's the first one.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/51708/51708-h/51708-h.htm
Personally, I prefer Ann Dunnigan's translation and I wish you could read more than pieces of it at Google Books. (She also translated War and Peace.)
Lenona at October 23, 2020 10:51 AM
> two short pages
The American electorate in the 21st Century. With the fingers of my two, tiny, girly-old-man fists, I could name the people in public life who've found peace with this truth.
Crid at October 23, 2020 3:22 PM
Since I can think of maybe three ways to interpret what you said, would you please set me straight?
As in, did you mean that most of the electorate still can't really believe in hard, honest work unless it's done with the hands? Or what?
(Btw, in the complete story, Ivan continues to rule AND work with his hands, and accepts all refugees, but the law in his kingdom is "he who has calluses on his hands eats at the table; he who has none eats the scraps.")
Lenona at October 24, 2020 4:01 PM
Sorry for not making sense, I just meant that a lot of people who've never put in a truly hard day of work, or ever had to compose & lead a team to get something done, or traveled far enough (even out of their homes or campuses) to see a genuinely different kind of thinking, will nonetheless assume that people who have done those things are trite and naive.
A favorite derivative of this thinking: Trump's not a good guy, but he got elected for some very good (and predictable) reasons.
Crid at October 26, 2020 12:40 AM
Sorry, took a stab at it (and tried not to be a gasbag).
Crid at October 26, 2020 12:41 AM
Whoops, wrong thread.
Not so much just "work with hands," but more like "do something besides office politics and reciting shabby ideas." (Academia, technocracy, etc.)
Crid at October 26, 2020 12:44 AM
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