Hannah Qazi - Assignment 16: Speech!

 As a result of a culture that has stigmatized a lack of a college education, we have crafted unrealistic expectations about the benefits of higher education. Students pursue a degree to get a good job, rather than directly pursuing a job and determining if a college degree is even necessary for it. This could explain why most students end up overqualified or without the right skill set for most jobs. In fact, the Washington Post reports that 43% of college graduates end up with jobs that don’t actually require their qualifications, with the majors such as business, legal studies, and public administration having the highest rates of underemployment. This is particularly troubling as those three majors make up 4 out of every 10 bachelor’s degrees awarded in the U.S. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the current unemployment rate is 3.6% which amounts to 6.8 million people. However, there are 7.4 million jobs available. These numbers don’t appear to correlate. Economist Bryan Caplan from the Cato Institute cites that employers, “...often have difficulty translating college degrees into actual job skills and, in turn, base it [applicant selection] upon the institutions from which applicants have graduated.” He explains that, “Our higher-education system is an effective but needlessly costly system for signaling employers about which workers to hire.” This has shifted the value of universities to lie in selling a title rather than the education itself. Because of this, most students don’t value the process of learning as much as the diploma they receive in the end, like the prestige associated with an Ivy League. Meta-analytic reviews from the University of Iowa have also illustrated a weak correlation between the level of education and actual job performance, citing that intelligence quotients are a more effective method of evaluation. 

  This issue of over-education has resulted in students that pay more for a product that is valued less. In a recent report published by Experian, research concluded that student debt has increased 62% over the last decade, reaching an extreme of $1.4 trillion in America. Many of these graduates are struggling to offset these costs, rendering them unable to invest in a home, vehicle, or even start a family. Adding on to the issue of a highly commercialized education system, many universities have even begun to shrink the academic calendar, leading to a further diminished return on educational investment. A student is now synonymous with a customer, and to cater to their customer, universities have prioritized student preferences over professional training. 

While I don’t believe the value of a college education should be discounted, students should recognize that there are alternatives available. Research from the Good Jobs Project, an NGO dedicated to addressing the structural economic change of workers with different education levels, found that 30 million jobs in the United States, with an average salary of $55,000 annually, don't require bachelor's degrees. For instance, contrary to certain stereotypes, construction jobs offer generous salaries due to increasingly high demand. The U.S. Department of Education reports that in the next five years, there will be 68 percent more infrastructure-related jobs available than there are people to fill them. A prime example is the labor shortage in California. In a report released by the Associated General Contractors of America, 62 percent of California contractors are unable to fill their desired number of salaried and craft worker positions. Given this, school districts should reform the curriculum to emphasize the opportunities presented by these growing markets that do not require bachelor’s degrees.