Acquiring good education is one of the most important things that many people strive to achieve. Apart from equipping people with knowledge and the ability to think for themselves, good education enables them to get good jobs. Everybody who goes to school dreams of getting a good job and living a good life after studies.
Although in some cases individuals who have little education get opportunities that enable them to live better lives than those with good education, education generally increases the chances of people of getting good jobs and living good lives. Majority of those who lack good education get the lowest paying jobs and lose them whenever more educated people show interest in the same jobs.
Job opportunities have become scarce such that most college graduates are forced to do jobs that do not require college degrees. In the current job market, a college degree does not guarantee a good job. Most college graduates have been finding it difficult to secure employment because of limited opportunities in the job market.
This is according to an article entitled “Many with New College Degree Find the Job Market Humbling,” by Catherine Rampell. Most college graduates get jobs that do not even require college degrees and they have to do them in order to earn a living. Getting a decent job is based on who the graduates know and those who have connections get better jobs. Since most of them take up certain jobs for survival purposes, the jobs do not require application of skills learnt in college.
As result, most college graduates have been considering going back to school to acquire higher academic qualifications because this would give them more opportunities. College graduates should move into the labor market with minimal expectations to avoid frustrations according to this article. This is because there are apparently few employment opportunities in the job market. The article however does not present college graduates with alternatives they should embrace when getting a job becomes entirely difficult.
Although college graduates have been finding it difficult to get jobs, they should not give up according to an article entitled “Job Outlook for College Graduates Is Slowly Improving,” by Lacey Johnson. According to this article, job opportunities for graduates are expected to increase. Employers say that they are willing to employ more graduates regardless of their specializations because they want different skills in their organizations.
Some fields like finance and engineering are likely to absorb more graduates while employment opportunities in other fields such as local and state agencies are expected to be few. However, the truth is that college graduates should not expect higher salaries because employers have no intentions of increasing the salaries.
It is important to advise young people joining colleges on the most marketable fields that would make it easier for them to get jobs after graduation. This is because some fields are evidently crowded while others have few college graduates. For example, it has been determined that a field like computer science has more job openings than available trained people.
It is therefore important for potential employees to make wise degree choices before they join college. This is important because things have changed and job opportunities have become scarce. It is also important for college graduates to be realistic and accept any job opportunity that comes their way without setting very high targets for themselves. They need to meet their basic needs as they look for their dream jobs.
Most people think that education is the key to economic breakthrough. However, this is not the case according to an article entitled “Degrees and Dollars,” by Paul Krugman. Being in possession of skills is no longer the factor that defines the US job market. Medium wage Jobs that support middle class individuals have not been growing as much as low wage and high wage jobs have been growing.
The notion that the job market is in need of educated individuals is not entirely true. One of the reasons why education may not be the solution is that most of the work that is done by educated people can easily be automated. For instance, legal research and some aspects of medical diagnosis have been computerized. One important change that needs to be done is to review the policies of American education that cause inequality.
Every child should be given an opportunity to acquire quality education. Societal prosperity would therefore not be achieved through education, but by building the society in a direct manner. Although this article tries to show that education is not very important and that lack of it is not the cause of economic failure, the value of education cannot be underestimated.
People should apply the arguments presented in this article in context and avoid dismissing education in its entirety. On the same note, individuals should be encouraged to develop their skills that might not be necessarily related to education. This is because some individuals are gifted in different areas that might result in great success.