New survey data from the nonprofit American Student Assistance shows that teen interest in college is down while interest in nondegree paths is on the rise.
Meanwhile, parents are skeptical of options outside the traditional college pathway to work.
Nearly half of all students surveyed – 45% – weren’t interested in going to college. About 14% said they planned to attend trade or technical schools, apprenticeships and technical boot camp programs, and 38% were considering those options.
66% of teens surveyed said parents supported their plans to pursue a nondegree route, compared with 82% whose parents encouraged them to attend college.
I can see that having a college degree may be a benefit at getting a job at your company, but would you recommend that people go to college to work at your company? Based on your numbers, a college degree only turns a 1 out of 4 chance to a 1 out of 3 chance of getting a job.
The company I work for is a huge medical equipment manufacturer, practically everyone in my building are either scientists, R&D or manufacturing process management and those positions all require specific degrees.
I work in IT, and they want the people leaders at least to have degrees. The position I was hiring for was a people leader, but I didn’t feel a degree was necessary. That said, if someone starting out on IT asked me if they should get a degree I would tell them that they should work in IT for a few years to see if they like it, and if they want to advance in IT then they will have a much easier time advancing with a degree. Depending how high they want to go they might even need a Masters.
But if people are choosing to go into a trade, are they choosing IT as that trade?
When I hear people talking about going to trade school over college, I expect them to go into technical fields where their trade certifications are enough to get by on.