We Need a Bridge from Academia to the Work Place

A generation has been told by their parents and their teachers that a college education is the only answer to a “good life”. “Manufacturing is dead” was a common statement. Young people from their mid-twenties to their mid-thirties now have student loan payments than are as large as a mortgage payment. However, because of the student debt, most of them cannot afford to buy a house. At the same time, financial institutions are raping this generation with high interest loans on their student debt. Now we have a generation that can’t afford the “good life”. I believe their lack of buying power will drive us into a recession if we don’t change course.

Another major issue that has been caused by this misleading of our youth is a lack of people entering the skilled trades. Our culture needs people with these skills to maintain the everyday life style we all desire. Where are the upcoming electricians, plumbers, mechanics, maintenance technicians, truck drivers, etc.? Any business owner will tell you their greatest problem in these areas is finding new employees with these skills. Look at the demographic of any of these professions. We are about a decade away from chaos.

How did we get here? When the housing financial crisis caused the 2009 recession, educators told students they needed to go to college to have a good income. Parents bought into the idea. Then the concept of the student loan “buy now and pay later” hooked this unexpecting generation. The slippery slope to uncontrolled student debt was wide open.

Academia has made a big business out of the concept of a “well rounded” education. We tell 18-year-old kids, “You can have a great experience with no cost to you now…just pay for it later”. Students are made to take classes they are not even interested in because they are “necessary for a well-rounded education”. The student cannot get the degree they desire without taking these extra credits at the cost of thousands of dollars, financed by more student debt.

Do we really believe it takes four years and $60,000 to $100,000 of debt to learn to be an Accountant? Most of what is needed to know can be taught on the job with a few classes added in for critical details. There is no check and balance on the rising costs of higher education. Just look at the buildings on any campus. Do those elaborate buildings improve the students’ education? Does it take a multi-million dollar building to learn the concepts of Business Administration? How much of the student debt has financed these elaborate buildings?

If you look back, past generations learned their trade on the job. Apprenticeships were normal. My own career path was from an entry-level Payroll Auditor to Timestudy Engineer to Inventory Management and Purchasing to Manufacturing Plant Management to Quality Systems Management to Recruiting and People Development; all skills learn on the job. I now consult with the Top Management of companies because of what I learned “in the trenches”, not what I learned through my education in the 60’s before computers were even used in business. At the rate technology is changing today, the education received at a college today will be out dated in a few years, but the debt will still be there for many decades.

Another major problem I have come to recognize is we expect an 18-year-old student, who has never experienced a real work environment, to decide what they want to do the rest of their lives. Most 30-year-olds don’t know the answer to that question yet. Why don’t we understand young people need to experience different roles in life before they can decide what they would like to do with their future? Most college degreed people are not working in a field that has anything to do with their college Major. That itself should show us that the system is broken.

I believe we need to blur the lines between academia and the work place, maybe even adding a few years to K-12. As a student nears the end of high school, they should have built into their education path different work place experiences so they find what they do best. Local businesses can fill entry-level positions, that they are already struggling to fill today, with students and add to the education process while students begin earning income and learning how to handle money and the responsibilities in the work place, both real problems for the youth of today. Who knows, maybe we could even have classes on budgeting and other basic life skills.

Co-ops, internships, apprenticeships and even part-time entry-level work will give our youth the experience they need to decide where their natural skills, passions and abilities can take them. If they then need a few classes to learn specific skills, they can work them into their schedule and pay as they go or better yet use company supported tuition reimbursement to pay for it. There is no need to hurry up and get an education by the time you are 22. At 22, the average person is going to work another 40 or 45 years. What is the hurry? We need to slow this run-away system down before we crash.

I have been a part of this concept in two different companies. The first company connected to GVSU in multiple ways; Engineering Co-ops, Business Internships, Class projects like a Marketing Study that help the company in locating future sites and Engineering Studies that improved efficiencies. We actually had a GVSU Engineering student determine a method of reducing and reselling scrap that saved thousands of dollars a month.

The second program is still growing. A local high school is in its fourth year of a partnership with a company I consult with to place Co-op Students in the facility each semester. The students get full credit for this real-life education, called Introduction to Manufacturing, and have the opportunity to start a career in a skilled trade. This year we are working with their Marketing Teacher to help create and determine the cost of items they can sell in their school store. They are currently embarking on a market study to help with business expansion. This school recently had multiple businesses come to the school, bring product and materials and discussed what their business does and how they do it. We had two of our co-op students participate in leading the discussion for our company with their peers. They were excited.

These are isolated examples of “bridge building”, but think about the value to our youth if this was a normal part of their education process. Exposed to multiple opportunities, our youth would have a much greater sense of where their natural talents, passions and abilities could take them. Businesses would have a hand in directing the students’ education in areas they are the experts in. Students would be learning in the real world, not from text book theory. The possibilities amaze me.