Colleague Robin Roman Wright and I collaborate often.  Right now we are designing a couple workbooks for teachers, counselors and others who teach What Color Is Your Parachute For Teens to groups*.

Last week, Robin called me for advice. 

“Carol, there have been so many articles in the paper about the over-selling of university degrees (slightly less than 50% of university grads are getting jobs that need their level of education).  There have been many articles about the dangers of student loan debt, both over-borrowing and borrowing to fund unsustainable majors.  Quite a few articles about the need for technical workers and the sizeable salaries that these careers pay have also been in the papers and on the Internet.  But still my young adult clients report that their parents and teachers are pushing them to go to university with the mindset that any degree is better than no degree.  What are we to do?”

Both Robin and I work with young adults individually, teach groups of them, and do public lectures for parents, teens and teachers to help them understand current trends in the workforce. So, my first thought was to respond with a variation on Winston Churchill’s immortal, “Keep calm and carry on.”

My second thought was not as reassuring.

To paraphrase Charles Darwin, those who cannot adapt will not survive.  Uninformed teachers and parents who continue to make decisions on out of date information are most certainly on the endangered species list.  While much has been written about the demise of the middle-class in the United States, not enough of those articles point out that by making herd mentality choices, rather than well researched or thought out ones, a great deal of current misery has been self-inflicted.

Once again, there is a growing generation gap.  When I first began speaking to college classes in 2005, they reported feeling betrayed.  They had done what they were told only to find out much of it wasn’t based in world-of-work reality.  As we have all seen in the Occupy movement, that sense of betrayal has turned to anger.

To qualify for 21% of US jobs, it is necessary to have a bachelors or higher degree.  The point It is not that no one should consider a university degree.  The point is both one of timing and need.  As no one will end their career in the job they began it, before they leave school--at whatever level that is--the majority of young adults need to learn skills that someone will pay them to do.  These first jobs in fields they enjoy will help them finance at least part of their years as twenty-somethings.

And please, let’s not have any talk about the need for a university degree as part of being an education person.  Until the 1960s, this equation didn’t exist.  Intelligent, ambitious people were often self-educated.  Of the founding fathers, only Alexander Hamilton had a university degree.  Other than Presidents Grant and Jackson, both West Point grads, until the 20^th century few US presidents had university degrees.  Frankly, the early presidents of this country were far better leaders than those of present day.

But I digress…A university education, for which total costs can add up to between $100,000 and $250,000 should produce not only an educated person, but one who can easily transition from school to work.  No one would buy an expensive car that lacks wheels or an engine.

Treating college as an end, rather than a part of ones career development is the equivalent of buying a very expensive lottery ticket for a chance to get a good job. To quote the equally immortal Dirty Harry, "Do you feel lucky?"

These days, more young people and their parents need for higher education to pay off as a sure thing.

Ignore academics and high school teachers who warn of dire consequences if higher education is treated as a consumer issue.  Despite their bleatings, higher education, like buying any expensive item, is a consumer issue.  Remember that almost none of these educators went to school when one had to choose between financing a college education and ever buying a home. Each teen and young adult must figure out what form of higher education fits their goals and pocketbook.

On pages 66 and 67 of What Color Is Your Parachute for Teens, is a section called “Developing a Three Part Plan.”  Anyone who would like a copy of this should send me their email.  The idea is to investigate the opportunities and costs of education or training at three different levels and to see which choice makes the most sense in terms of a young persons ambition, academic stills, interests and financial resources.

Those who take the time to do this investigation are mighty glad they did.  Like other students who are lucky enough to be in high schools that offer career planning and development classes, those who use the Three Part Plan find more options than they thought possible.

* The first workbook should be available early in 2012.{jcomments on}