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OUR HIGH SCHOOL principal returned from a teacher recruitment fair and announced to the school board, “Tell your children or grandchildren: Do not get a degree in elementary education.” He went to the recruitment fair looking to hire some very specific specialty teachers for the high school. He mostly met new grads with credentials to teach elementary school—who were looking for jobs that simply don’t exist in our region.
Our superintendent explained that our region had several large, well-known schools of education that turned out far more teachers than were needed locally. But he also noted that this was not a national issue. Ample signing bonuses were available for elementary school teachers in high-growth southern and western states.
New college grads are living in Mom and Dad’s basement because the degrees they earned didn’t translate into jobs. Career planning, preferably conducted in high school, should include an understanding of in-demand jobs. There are certain jobs where the openings greatly exceed the supply and where future growth is expected. In many cases, these in-demand jobs don’t require a college degree—and yet they’re more lucrative than many jobs that do. In our heavy-manufacturing area, employers are begging for welders and machinists. Skilled trades are another in-demand route.
As the elementary school teacher issue shows, “in demand” can vary geographically. As young people think about their career, they need to honestly assess where they’re willing to live. If they’re truly willing to move, it opens up more opportunities. For instance, there might be a huge need for aerospace engineers, but there are just a few specific areas of the country where those jobs will be plentiful.
In Ohio, where I live, the state jobs agency, Ohio Means Jobs, points students and adults to in-demand jobs in our state. Web searches can yield similar information for other states, including Michigan, North Carolina and Colorado. The Bureau of Labor Statistics identifies high-growth occupations from a national perspective. There’s also national data aimed specifically at women in the workforce.
These resources can be a good starting point. Students then need to consider how the data meshes with their skills and aptitude—and whether the location of these jobs matches up with their desires.
There is a tremendous demand for trades people (electricians, plumbers, HVAC techs, etc). Very few young people are pursuing these careers. Yet after apprenticeship, these people can make very good money and are not saddled with college debt. Many people excel in these fields but would not make it through 4 years of college. They are smart but in a different way.
What makes you think very few young people are pursuing jobs in the skilled trades?
Ethnicity and gender are both considered as requirements for many jobs…education not so much.
In Connecticut, those who want to teach can go to the University of Connecticut, which has a five year BA/MA program in the School of Education. However, admission is competitive, there are a limited number of spots, and you need to have high grades in your first two years of college to be admitted.
Curiously, the other universities in the state system also offer similar programs, which are much less competitive.
You can imagine what happens; nearly every graduate from the UConn program gets a job, even the ones who specialized in elementary education. But if you went to one of the lesser schools, you are might find a job, but probably won’t. Maybe you can go to Arizona or something, but here in Connecticut the hiring principals all know where the best prospects are going to come from.
Absolutely! Our obsession with a college degree is out of control. I’m all for a good education, but there are many ways to obtain an education beyond spending four, five even six years in classes for a so-called degree focused on nothing in particular. Then after following the conventional wisdom we are told we have a student loan crisis. If the value were there, paying loans that average $300-$400 a month repayment would not be a crisis.
Employers have not helped by adding “bachelors degree required” to job description where that is not the case.
The implied promise of success because of college education fails to consider success requires the actions, motivation, determination and more of the individual.
My four children have expensive degrees, three with masters and none of them work in fields related to their degrees although my daughter once did as a teacher.
Aside from professional and highly specialized training, I fear the value of a degree has become as bogus as the price of abstract “art.”
I am in complete agreement about the need for good career planning. However, it is also important not to draw conclusions based only on anecdotes and to also acknowledge that job markets can change dramatically during the time students are in college. The fact that there will always be college grads who have difficulty finding good jobs shouldn’t automatically be taken as proof that too many people are going to college.
I looked at the Ohio Means Jobs website to check on demand in Ohio for jobs mentioned in this article and found the following:
Job openings (Median wage): Machinists–2,854 ($42,650), Welders–1,972 ($40,589), Elementary Teachers ($63,404)–3,511.
I also looked at US News for additional information about the job market. Welders and machinists aren’t on the list of jobs most in demand so I looked at other skilled trades. Projected demand: plumbers–20,900 jobs, electricians–62,200 jobs, auto mechanic– negative 27,800 jobs, elementary school teacher–51,400 jobs, high school teacher–40,000 jobs.
One important thing to consider is that electricians, plumbers, welders, etc. typically learn through paid apprenticeship programs.
In Oregon, a brand new electrical apprentice makes $20.14 an hour. After five years, as a journeyman, they make $50.35 an hour. So, if one started in the apprenticeship program at age 18, by age 23 they could be making over $50.00 an hour and have no educational debt. During their five years of apprenticeship, they would have earned a total of $243,000 in salary.
In contrast, an 18 year old who decides to pursue elementary school education is likely to have tens of thousands of dollar of debt at age 23 and a starting salary of $16.50 per hour.
https://nietc.org/applicants/apprenticeship-programs/inside-electrician/
https://www.indeed.com/career/elementary-school-teacher/salaries/OR
With all due respect, I think you will have to look far and wide to find many 23-year-old journeymen electricians who are making $50/hr. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for electricians is $27.36/hr ($56,900/year). Plumbers have similar earnings at $56,330, while welders average $44,190/yr.
Elementary school teachers have an average salary of $60,660. Over time, the slightly higher pay for school teachers versus electricians and plumbers would probably make up for the time and expense of college.
The BLS occupational handbook shows a projected growth of 7% for elementary teachers versus 9% for electricians, 8% for welders, and 5% for plumbers.
The purpose of my comments is not to argue against the skilled trades and the terrific opportunities they provide. Rather, it is to point out that I think many folks have an overly negative view of the value of a college degree that is not supported by employment data.
https://www.bls.gov/
I’m actually surrounded by skilled tradespeople who make salaries higher than $50/hour. The majority of laboratory equipment repair people I hire charge $200/hour minimum. Most of them don’t have a college degree. I asked one of our repairmen how much he made annually (he’s an independent contractor). Three years ago he grossed $600,000. He wants to find someone to take over his business but hasn’t found anyone willing to do the work. It requires a one-year apprenticeship learning how to service boilers. And, of course, it requires a crazy work ethic and being located in a metropolitan area.
My point isn’t to argue against college degrees. I just think over the past 30-40 years a college degree has essentially become the equivalent of a high school diploma. And I think the value of a B.S. degree is decreasing rapidly as tech companies begin to offer their own certificate programs and other versions of college alternatives (like programming boot camps) become more popular.
This just popped up in my news feed and is a great example of what’s being discussed:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/31/what-it-takes-to-earn-100k-a-year-as-an-electrician-in-new-york-city.html
That’s a great article as are the other ones that can be found on this website! Of course, wages in NYC are quite a bit higher than the national average.
BLS data indicate that the top 10% of electricians and plumbers make more than $98,000 so it isn’t difficult to find high-earning people in the skilled trades. Nevertheless, I see no reason to think that the national BLS median salary data I cited is wrong.
Having spent 25 years in my second career as a college business professor I share many of your views about the value of college. However, as long as most of the brightest young people continue to go to college employers will continue to pay a premium for graduates because, if nothing else, a degree signals ability and perseverance.
I also think it is great that more employers are offering alternatives to college. In my area, both NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill offer coding bootcamps. However, community colleges have been training programmers since the 1970s so I am skeptical that many young folks are viewing these bootcamps as an alternative to a B.S. in computer science.
It’s demand AND supply. Even though there’s less demand for welders and machinists in absolute terms, there’s a tiny supply of skilled workers. And my guess is there’s not enough training capacity in those fields either, so the worker supply challenges will continue for years.
One of my favorite subjects! I’ve noticed a similar trend with regards to graduate degrees. I see a lot of people who, unable to find a job with a B.S. degree in hand, continue on to get an M.S. or a PhD. And then they discover there aren’t any jobs available for them with those degrees either.
I saw an article the other day that Google is offering their certificate courses, for free, to community colleges. I think certificate credentials, not degrees, is the future of higher education.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/29/google-gives-community-colleges-free-access-to-their-4-certificates.html
Well, there are quite a few people no sensible employer will hire. It’s not the degree, either.
Absolutely! My company hires both degreed and non-degreed for a range of positions. Failure to pass the drug test is a huge factor as is a criminal history, and thats before they even start!