Why College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

Name: Course Code: Date:                                              Why College May Not Be Worth It Anymore (Ip, 2008) details the story of Dewing, a successful data modeler before the 2001 tech bubble. She was later laid off and she tried to earn the same salary which as not been possible. she recounts the harrowing experience of knocking on employer’s doors to get an employment. She partly blames her earlier education on limiting her t a narrow career field which cost her a lot when she was initially paid for. Ip details how college education limits their employment chances because of their often-perceived value. (Ip, 2008) shows that the value of college education has dropped and the job market needs more versatile people. A college education is narrow and trains for a specific field but the modern workplace needs more than specified skills. Our education system is supposed to equip us with skills that are sustainable up to retirement and can help the country. These skills should be among others financial literacy, entrepreneurship, investment, environmental conservation, first aid. A college education is limited in its application because it only covers a limited scope aimed at preparing a student for a certain career. The college has been marketed as the security for the future. Drawing from the experiences and lives of the previous generations, there is some palpable evidence that college enhances the quality of life. The big question is whether the college can guarantee the millennials and later generations the same security and life it accorded their parents. However, considering our technology-driven world today, there are many learning options which do not burden students with debt. The current education system was built for the industrial age and it has structurally not been adapted to accommodate the evolving concept of learning and working. It seems to work for select few who end up becoming valedictorians and graduate with very high GPAs. The system prepared students for white collar jobs which were high paying and had better prospects of leading a better and decent life. However, in the information age which started roughly 5 decades ago, the idea of white-collar jobs has been redefined. Though they continue to exist, technology seems to offer better prospects for a better life. Most of the top tech billionaires and the people whose ideas have changed our world did not graduate from college i.e Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates etc. Their business acumen or revolutionary ideas did not stem from any college education but from aligning their visions with the new information age and pursuing their dreams. They are among millions of students who dropped out of college to pursue their dreams and they have led better lives than the education could offer. In the industrial age, college dropouts had far slimmer chances of success but that narrative has changed. Additionally, the invention of the internet has created a parallel learning system which has helped many dropouts to learn the concepts they need to build a successful business and or careers. Today, two in every three programmers are self-taught (Coren, 2016) using the available resources online and more people are taking online courses to learn the skills they do not know and use them to earn a living. The current trend of learners gravitating to other learning options other than college shows that college and traditional concept of schooling is changing and the nature of the education system especially tertiary institutions must change and reflect modern learning methods. College education has become synonymous with debt. The outstanding student loan debt has tripled in the last decade and over 70 % of college graduates have a student loan (Nova, 2018). The average student loan debt is $30,000 and the figure has been rising. Entry level jobs for college students is below the average debt they owe. They are also supposed to move out and live on their own or nearer to their workplaces. Most graduates are burdened by these loans and it slows their developmental agendas especially starting a family, owning a home etc. For those who are unable to land jobs soon enough, the debt ...