Is the college dream still what it was cracked up to be? How many young people go to college, get bogged down in debt, and never really use their college education in a job? Although there’s little doubt college serves as a useful maturation and socialization period and that learning how to think is valuable in its own right, but high school graduates should also consider their return on investment when contemplating college. With trades understaffed but financially rewarding and our eroding US manufacturing crying for skilled workers, perhaps there is a better way to make America great again short of universal college education.
Germany has successful trade and manufacturing apprenticeship programs that we might emulate. Especially since Germany remains strong in manufacturing despite Asian pressures (almost 25% of its GDP compared to our 12%). By contrast, American parents often snub vocational schools and make inappropriate jokes about tradespeople. American culture needs to better value the skills involved with making things so its youth can choose such paths with pride. Perhaps the solution is vocational training with a generous side of liberal arts. There is no reason why plumbers shouldn’t quote Steinbeck. German apprenticeship often involves 3 days of hands-on training for a specific skill/job along with 2 days of “schooling.” Several years of that can get them a “master” credential which their community often publicly celebrates. How often do our communities honor college Master Degree graduates (or even offer the recipients a job)?
In addition to better valuing skills and trades, we of course must find a way to pay for their development. In Germany, this burden rightfully falls to companies who pay for an individual’s training period while also paying them a salary. In America, we also pay one way or another, but probably inefficiently. If industry paid for such training up front in some kind of formal program, it would probably be rewarded in the form of improved recruiting and higher profits from better productivity. If apprentices paid something toward their training, how are they worse off than paying for college and college loans, which leaves them without any promise of a job?
Skeptics might argue that, if ever revitalized, American manufacturing will rely on robots so vocational training would be wasted. But someone will need to run the robots and such specific training would be more effective than getting a much more abstract computer science degree. It’s only a matter of the type of, not whether, vocational training is needed. The more college degrees we have, the less likely we will have a labor force that aspires to trades and manufacturing. We will simply be cranking out people who expect to be the boss, but are unlikely to be qualified. Until we figure this out, we should be thankful that immigrants are happy to do this work, as has always been the case in America.