Sounds like a better plan than anything the NEA has offered...

"Apprentice training at minimum wage until you can meet their requirements, restore shop classes and vocational ed to a real base of reality."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXZ7R...

Exactly, which is why these "specialized" 4 year degrees are mostly mush, that consist of some material pertinant to the subject, but the graduate, when then employed, pretty much starts at square zero. That is why the military vet is almost a better deal, because they have learned to learn and at a rapid pace. High school should be a general knowledge course in all basic subjects, necessary to give a person a basic tool box to then go start really learning. But educators have turned education into a cottage industry they control, and they produce resultant "crap".

It is not really possible for any kind of "universal educational system" To provide the necessary "skills and knowledge" to workers in almost all industries. The only thing that actually works is that an entrepreneur recognizes the need to teach, (on the job) the skills and knowledge necessary to get their particular job done, and provide it. Throughout our history, this is the only thing that actually works.

Exactly! I learned auto skills on a 1964 VW Kharmann Ghia, then in the Navy, electronics, troubleshooting, hydraulics, and electrical. Has let me do 90% of my own work at home, as well as a good job.

You are so correct. Your skills would be the same as a PHd at this point, yet there is no system to recognize that, which leads to the discrepancy and also a common perception of "less". Hands on skills can only be taught, as basic (well Navy) education theory says. You need to teach knowledge to support skills, and they mesh. Pure knowledge serves no purpose but to generate more pure knowledge, which never gets taken into reality. Had Rickover only been interested in nuclear power for nuclear power, it never would have gone to sea. Or become a part of the energy system. he took knowledge and then had it applied to a specific task and skill. Same thing with my work, I make more than a lot of senior engineers, yet I function across a broad spectrum of skills, from writing specs and tech documents to actually running the factory floor. Finding people who can do that is very hard.

Hello nickursis,
I am once again training a new apprentice. I can't find young people with any skills or desire to do metalworking around here. I am training a guy with some past experience that is old enough to retire, but wants to continue to be productive. Young people are no longer offered shop classes in HS anymore around here. I hear this is a problem for many of my fellow machine shop owners locally. I believe this notion fostered by our government run education system, that everyone needs a college degree, is largely to blame.
Respectfully,
O.A.

The skills I learned between dirt bikes as a kid and the training in the Navy made it so I never have had to call in any professionals for my motors or in my home except for deep electrical stuff. The money saved by DIY carpentry, mechanics and plumbing over these many years made it all worth the time spent as Vietnam was winding down. Not many helicopters around here to wrench on but plenty of other engines to keep running and it all translates.

I went in 1976, and left in April of my Senior year as I had enough credits. I remember walking in the barracks in Boot Camp the night of graduation with a pair of socks on a broom to catch "dust bunnies". Learned how to prioritize that night...

"...I think kids at 18 need a year or two of reality learning and I don't mean on mom and dads free lunch with room and board. Join the military or get a job and start paying real bills in order to eat. Something was ingrained into most of us back in the late 60s and we couldn't get out of mommy and daddy's house quick enough and first on the list was a job and a car to get you back and forth from an apartment you shared with a couple buddies."

Yes, yes, yes x1,000 BT

Protests against Trump and (some) Republicans!!

Companies need to hire people as they are and train them to become what they need them to be. An old school idea that creates an economic ladder today.

I joined the USN right after HS graduation in 1970. I was at best a C- student just doing enough to get out of that joke called a school with a diploma. The USN taught me the focus I was desperately in need of and in every school they sent me through I aced them at the top of my class. After the Navy I took a career job in the prison system and started going to college on the GI bill. Once again it was a joke school where half the students had no business being in a higher education setting when they missed the lower HS basics. With the exception of the top 10% of HS graduates who really do learn I think kids at 18 need a year or two of reality learning and I don't mean on mom and dads free lunch with room and board. Join the military or get a job and start paying real bills in order to eat. Something was ingrained into most of us back in the late 60s and we couldn't get out of mommy and daddy's house quick enough and first on the list was a job and a car to get you back and forth from an apartment you shared with a couple buddies. I spent that entire summer of 1970 before my induction dead broke just trying to keep my junker car running and living on Ramen and Lipton soup and what ever I could eat at the restaurant where I worked. Expecting kids to excel when they are given everything is even a bigger joke than a public school HS education. My dad floated me an $800 loan at graduation to buy a 1962 Sunbeam Alpine that needed lots of work and made it clear $100/month for 8 months or else. I paid it off in 3 months and went to boot camp.

I think you are right. College has morphed into a fabrication of the education empire, serving only itself

so true

More useless, unproductive graduates?

That is true, but a lot of employers recognize that. Intel gave me credit for a Bachelors when I was hired 20 years ago as an E7 Level 3 trained sonar tech. Military people need to use Clep and the free classes they can get while on active duty to get the best results.

I will say Portland Community College on oregon does do some good work that does involve most semiconductor manufacturing equipment, because Intel provided the equipment and the requirements and they hired a lot of Intel retirees. Otherwise, you are right. Very few schools know what the requirements are, and just throw crap at the wall to see what sticks.

Classic example, Prof. My son is an Army E7 with almost 20 years of experience and management skills, but has flat out said California is not an option, with all their taxes and high costs. Maybe your son in law needs to evacuate and he might have better luck.

You, sir, can be the poster boy for how it is really done. The whole college thing is a fabrication of the Education empire. My experience is exactly the same, I did an BS in Internet Studies (my company paid for it, I got GI Bill, so I took the ride). Did not do a huge amount of work, picked up a few useful things that actually benefited my employer, and graduated Magnum Cum Laude. However, it has no direct bearing on my job or performance.

Well, remember, these "CEOs" have the same education all the slaves do, and whatever they picked up along the way. Common sense and reality are not on the menu necessarily....

Exactly!. The Education Establishment took over the whole economy in the aftermath of WW2 with the GI Bill. It allowed almost everyone and his mother (well no women) to go to college, and there was an explosion. Since it paid well, was free and covered 4 years, a LOT of GI's used it, and have used it. This created the false expectation that you need a degree to know anything. Those guys were successful because they went into colleg after a war where they were cammed through some very detailed technical schools and HAD to lear it quick, then apply it in the field or get killed. They took that ability to college. Totally different program from todays "coddle and change diaper" programs . You can take a HS graduate from a "good" program, and teach them anything, including nuclear physics, given a good program and enough time.

not a damn thing of practical use !!!

I have no idea, but it is either a new holiday, or a new tax or fee....

What does a graduate in black studies or women's studies produce?
;^)