Table of Contents
Jul 10, 2024
In previous generations, Americans enjoyed comparatively higher levels education and more developed skill sets, which ultimately made them more productive and more economically valued & rewarded. This contributed in large part to what enabled the U.S. economy to not only grow, but to flourish, even dominate.
Today, however, the world has not only caught up, it is leaving us behind in many regards. Major gains have not just been made in developing countries in recent years, which often have a set of built-in advantages (such as cheap labor and the ability to effect great change with seemingly minor interventions given low levels of output and growth as a starting point), but in comparable developed economies as well.
At the core of this issue is education. Our current education system deliberately overlooks the stark reality that the majority of Americans will never attend university, much less obtain a university degree. And yet, while we know the positive correlation between education and employment and income-generation, there are also plenty of examples of individuals who never graduated from university that have found incredible success. Facebook CEO/ Co-Founder Mark Zuckerberg never finished his undergraduate studies, and yet started one of the biggest tech companies of our time and has a personal net worth of over $100 billion today.
The late Apple CEO/Co-Founder Steve Jobs never finished college either, and today Apple Inc. employs more than 164,000 people and has a net worth of nearly $2.8 trillion.
And the list goes on…Bill Gates, Henry Ford, James Cameron, Frank Lloyd Wright, John D. Rockefeller, Wolfgang Puck, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, Rachael Ray, Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, Milton Hershey, Richard Branson, Russell Simmons…none of these individuals either attended university or finished their studies. Nevertheless, all of them were innovators, entrepreneurs, and job-creators who have left a very lasting impact on our world.
Culturally, the predominant trend in high schools across the country continues to be to prepare and encourage students to pursue higher education. Even in low-income neighborhoods with poorly performing public school systems where students as a whole will eventually face greater challenges, we see an emphasis on getting students on a path to attend university after graduating high school.
While there are certainly arguments to be made in favor of ensuring further educational opportunities for all American youth, the reality is that not all students are prepared for, thinking about, realistically able, or even interested in attending university. In fact, nearly 38% of all individuals who attend a 4-year institution after high school do not graduate within 6 years. That is, 8.2 million of the estimated 18.6 million students attending university today will not graduate. That is a staggering statistic.
Over the past several decades, we have seen major increases in the number of Americans who do eventually obtain a college degree. In 1940, only 5% of the adult population held a 4-year college degree. Today, that number hovers around 38%. That is an impressive achievement that has undoubtedly brought immense value and development to our nation as a whole. But that also means that 62% of our adult population today (estimated at 258 million persons) does not hold a college degree. In total, that is around 160 million Americans.
We know that streamlining all students to attend university is impractical, ineffective, and fails to serve both the economic needs and overall wellbeing of both industry and the individuals themselves. Higher academia is doing a disservice to our youth by making them believe that the only path to success means attending university and obtaining a degree, and that that degree is somehow your guaranteed ticket to success. During that process, many do not finish, accumulate huge amounts of debt, or fall into a career that does not interest them and/or does not maximize their full potential. Think of how much potential is being squandered, how many prospective entrepreneurs never come to be, how much debt is being assumed (especially when it comes to vocational & technical programs), and how much economic opportunity is not being fully exploited…
We also know that the development of basic skills is inextricably linked to improved employment outcomes, higher wages, gains in personal & social wellbeing, increased economic output, stronger industry competitiveness, and even future (long-term) individual educational attainment. In short, despite federal and state investment in supporting post-secondary career and technical education streams, especially through Title IV Federal Student Aid support, the current reality is out of alignment with educational realities and market demands.
Vocational education and training (VET) as a whole in the U.S. today is insufficient and does not properly align with labor market needs, nor create adequate clarity and systems for both employers & jobseekers. And all of this represents a wasted economic opportunity on a grand scale.
We must also recognize the implicit bias that exists regarding “blue collar” work, which culturally is valued less in this country, on the whole. This prejudice is reflected in our system of education at every level, which further hurts the economy by not making full use of our labor and productivity potential.
Considerable prospective socio-economic benefits of creating VET systems that respond directly to labor market needs clearly incentivize rethinking our current national strategy as well. For example, studies have shown that countries with strong initial VET systems (like Germany) have had greater success in reducing youth unemployment. VET investments also have a positive correlation with market competitiveness and higher labor wages.
By allowing for thoughtful VET programs to take root at the high school level (which will then work their way up through community colleges / colleges / universities and up to the work force level), we can pave the way for a brighter future for a large percentage of our youth for whom university is not a good fit. Investment in and rethinking of this strategy has the possibility of enabling:
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