Oregon City, located at the end of the Oregon Trail, was the first city west of the Rocky Mountains to be incorporated. It also boasts being the site where the first long distance electricity was sent over wires, traveling 14 miles to Portland. It takes a boat ride to fully see how the area has changed. Mills that used to line the river are abandoned and buildings look dilapidated. Change is a constant in everyone’s life. Are you ready for it?
Preparing for Work-Part 1
Following is the first of a series of newsletters discussing education and employment opportunities for working age people. This blog provides background information that will feed into stories about how to adapt in an era where rapid changes in the economy, political climate, technology, and environment are the norm.
Parents often direct their high school graduates to enter fields that pay well in today’s marketplace. As a result, students register for college classes that are narrowly targeted towards careers they may or may not be interested in. Though current research shows that attaining a higher education leads to a better job, only 58% of those starting college graduate according to the National Student Learning House Research Center. This means that only 6 out of 10 enrolled students will receive a degree by the end of six years. Those leaving early can be so weighted down with debt that they will never have the earning potential to pay it off.
In 2019, postsecondary enrollments decreased by 1.3 percent, though the completion rate did rise a piddling amount. Business, marketing, health related professions, and general studies are among the most popular majors for entering freshmen.
Colleges increasingly find it difficult to make ends meet, causing them to become more inventive. They lure students in with degree or certificate granting programs in such fields as casino management, cybersecurity, sports communication and business, eSports, competitive video gaming, food studies, hip-hop studies, social entrepreneurship and aging, beer fermentation, wine and viticulture technology, and manufacturing. There are masters degree offerings in peace education, political campaign management, and embodiment studies (Goddard College describes this as “honoring the intelligence of the body and its capacity for insight and liberation with respect to lived bodies, social bodies, and the living earth.” Some, but not all of these programs are good bets.
Technology has had a major influence on the way classes are taught. The number of students enrolled fully online increased dramatically during the last few years. In the past, work and family obligations were typical reasons given for distance learning, but today a growing number of students (34 percent) say they prefer to learn this way. Those under 45 years are likely to use mobile devices to complete course related activities.
Most college students work, but the type of work they do and the hours employed differs for low and high income students. Low-income students are more likely to have full-time jobs than those with financial resources. Unfortunately, students working 15 or more hours per week have C grade point averages or lower. Those employed less than 15 hours a week attain B average and higher grades. In general, lower income students enroll in associate degree and certificate programs while those with higher incomes aim for bachelors degrees.
The greatest difference between the poor and the wealthy is that low-income students work to feed and house themselves while their more privileged colleagues work in order to make connections for long-term professional and academic reasons. This disparity tends to “compound social inequity” according to Lindsay Ahlman at the Institute for College Access and Success. In other words, all too many students, have to choose between studying or working for their food and shelter.
Student homelessness has been on a steady rise. Approximately 1.5 million public school students experienced homelessness during the 2017-18 school year. Among college students the situation is reaching crisis proportions. The Hope Center for College, Community and Justice found that 18% of two-year college enrollees and 14% of those in four year institutions are essentially homeless. They live in cars, couch surf occasionally with friends and stay in overnight shelters. Insecurity affects their emotional stability, creating doubts about their future.
Not everyone is college bound, but a stigma still exists in choosing a trade school over college. This is especially true for youth living in households where their parents consider college to be the only true path to success.
Despite this disdain, trade-school enrollment is up from 9.6 million students in 1999 to 16 million in 2014. This follows a decline in the 80’s and 90’s that left the country with a shortage of skilled workers and trades people. Many vocational jobs, though, requires four or more years training that includes attaining computer skills. Businesses like general motors and Intel work have joined forces with colleges and unions to offer a mix of on-the-job-training with academics. Half of the secondary school students in Europe are enrolled in vocational programs. It ’s time to get rid of the college-for-all narrative in the U.S..
The next fifty years are going to be quite different than those of the boom years following the second world war. Computers and robots have already assumed jobs previously held by people. Drones and driverless trucks will deliver packages. Legal research, accounting, computer programming, web design, and call center systems are being managed by people in distant countries like India.
Youth are going to have to develop the mental aptitude and flexibility to thrive in a chaotic altered landscape. What a person studies in college may not be related to their employment twenty years later. Being curious, having a broad perspective, and the ability to problem solve is apt to prove more valuable than a narrowly defined expertise.
Since this is likely the situation students will face, what do they need to know to be able to move-within-the-flow of uncertainty? Let’s think about this question and consider it more fully over the next few weeks.
Next week – Preparing for the Future: Part II – The Path Least Taken
References:
Nadworny,E. (2019) College Completion Rates are Up, but the numbers will Still Surprise You. NPR. retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2019/03/13/681621047/college-completion-rates-are-up-but-the-numbers-will-still-surprise-you
Marcus,J ( 2018)Panicked universities search of students are adding thousands of new majors. The Hechinger Report. retrieved from https://hechingerreport.org/panicked-universities-in-search-of-students-are-adding-thousands-of-new-majors/
current statistics (2019) Term of Enrollment Estimates, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. retrieved from https://nscresearchcenter.org/report-search/
Lederman,D. (2019) Online College Studenets. Inside Higher Ed. retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/06/05/annual-survey-shows-online-college-students-increasingly
St.Amour,M. (2019). Working College Students. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/11/18/most-college-students-work-and-thats-both-good-and-bad
Zaveri,M. (2020) Number of Homeless Students Rises to New High, Report Says. New York Times. retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/03/us/Homeless-students-public-schools.html
Jones,C (2019) Homeless in College: Students sleep in cars, on couches when they have nowhere else to go. USA Today. retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/06/10/homelessness-among-college-students-growing-crisis/3747117002/
St-Esprit,M (2019) The Stigma of Choosing Trade School Over College. The Atlantic. retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/03/choosing-trade-school-over-college/584275/
_________________
Art is always for sale. Contact me at marilynne@eichingerfineart.com
Oregon City Falls– Acrylic on canvas – 36” x 48” – $ 1,100