system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: There should be more emphasis on entry level/trade jobs than college

It’s no surprise that college is a massive life issue for almost everyone who’s grown up in America. It just keeps inflating, like our monetary system - first it was a privilege to go to college but not the end of the road if you didn’t. Then, more and more people started going. Now, you prep for college as soon (or before) you enter high school, and you graduate at 18 pressured to go SOMEWHERE, learn SOMETHING, pay for EVERYTHING. Most young people have a “mid-school crisis” and change their majors a few times. Most people also come out with massive financial debt, YEARS of their lives gone, and just as little hope for a job as they did before school. You can no longer go through higher education without partaking in studies abroad, missionary trips, extracurriculars, or years and years and a handful of degrees in an effort to stand out in some tiny way in a bloated, exhausted system. College is a great way for young adults to break out for the first time in a sort of training ground for real life, but in reality (besides the stress and debt) it’s still not the same and people have to emerge as sometimes middle aged adults, broke and with no sense of direction. Only a few rise to the top. 

No wonder everyone lives with their parents until 30 now. This entire generation relies on the ones before it more than ever before. What will happen when the next generation comes? There will be no support for them when they’re in the same shoes. My grandparents finished school in 8th grade, bought multiple homes, and were successful and well content their entire lives. The valedictorian of my school has no idea what he wants to do for college - a huge decision for a young person - but none the less he’s going to school just for the sake of going to school. That’s all there is now. Youth are locked in a cycle of not contributing to the work force until they all get out of school looking for the same job they all studied for but no one will get. 

I think there should be more entry level, work-up-through-training jobs available to stabilize the economy and the population’s mental health. You don’t know what you’re going to do with your life? Don’t waste your money and time on school! Work! But why would you? A cashier or retail job isn’t going anywhere. People take their labor off the table in the hopes of a bright future which keeps getting farther away. I work in healthcare currently. The way up is full of student debt and years of degrees, so that one day I can count my money at 45 and decide...this isn’t what I want to be doing. Just like changing majors but a less derailing, expensive way - if I wanted to try being a veterinarian, or a journalist, or an actor, or scientist, there should be some kind of entry level jobs that offer promotions through training. Apprenticeships worked before, and eventually there would come a point where, after you decide you enjoy the field you’re in, you can now go to college to become a higher, more successful level in that area. 

It’s my belief that the economy would benefit greatly from having more people in the workforce younger, learning what field they want to stay in before spending money they don’t own and can’t pay back to switch endlessly between majors and remain living in their parent’s homes with only a part time pizza job to sustain them. There shouldn’t be a field that doesn’t offer entry level programs to train and work and advance before reaching a point where college is needed. College should return to being a speciality for privileged or ambitious  people that know more about where they’re going, then a giant swimming pool with no shallow end for the people just jumping in. 


EDIT: I’m seeing a lot of people comment that there is no value in trade jobs you can get after highschool. People are saying how the economy is geared toward degrees and that you need to go through college to get any jobs. That is exactly what I’m saying is the problem. We need to rebalance so there is NOT a 99% need to cycle through colleges before getting jobs. The workforce would be better off if people could have more jobs available out of highschool, with college as an option to move up after reaching your highest point of training and experience.
gpt
An economy needs people to ascend to the highest level of skill they can as quickly as they can. A degree gives a person an excellent chance to showcase an ability to learn about a feild compared to their peers. Getting promoted from entry level to a high skill job, in contrast, is slow and almost completely dependant on networking.

I completely agree that it is a waste to muddle through a degree and not be able to get a job on the other side. However, the loss for society as a whole is balanced out by far more people demonstrating their talents in a certifiable way. 

Spending years working just to then get a degree and end up where you would have been if you had just immediately got a degree is useful only if you are very unsure of a direction and should not be the norm. Most people who get a degree can then go on to work in any field after a while anyway.