Quote Originally Posted by Cavguy View Post
One thing I admired during my time in Germany was their tiered educational system - university bound (doctor, lawyer, engineer, business, etc) , specialization bound (IT, technical), and trade bound (apprenticeships, votech)
Theoretically, the American post-secondary system is set up the same way. Thing is, the kids ain't buying it. HS is all about piping people into university period or not at all. The focus of community and junior colleges is producing transfer students. In the meantime, the United States losing precious tradesmen in fields ranging from construction to mining to the maritime--increasingly relying on informal apprenticeships and on a diminishing corps of college graduates who've put in the time for the BS and advanced degrees. I wish I had the numbers on tradesmen pursuing four-year and graduate degrees in their fields, but I suspect that number is shrinking as well.

What we apparently have more than enough of are folks with AS and BS degrees in accounting, social sciences and communications. I fear IS and graphics design is emerging as the next big boondoggle for students too afraid or lazy to work with their hands or even put pencil to paper.

Something like information systems engineering, which is usually a BS degree in the USA, was a specialized program. Univeristy education was mostly for traditional humanities, science, and mathematics.
They probably have a more rational compensation program for IT related stuff. Too many graduates with degrees in math and computer science are shuffled into coding jobs that pay a good $10 - 15K more than they're worth could be easily handled overseas or by a corps of certified specialists. I mean seriously, if a man can pick up enough PHP, HTML and Javascript to do some pretty high end web application development in three months, is it really worth setting the entry level bar at a 4 yr degree and $55K? And I'm talking about the salaried W-2 guys working in house, not consultants who have to answer to customers with more reasonable expectations for product costs.

I also liked that the system recognized that not everyone needs a high level broad education, and that some people just make good electricians, carpenters, machinists, etc. with a focused trade school and a rigorous apprenticeship program.
Wow, just like the US military, and last I checked they were sending folks to university at a considerably higher rate than the general population.

I also found interesting that technical jobs were usually not what we would consider university grads, but were well trained in that particular discipline (info sys professionals, network engineers, etc.).
And in the States we have a shortage in that talent; probably the biggest reason why the US on average trails behind Europe and large parts of East Asia in telecom availability in the firstplace. Devry and ITT, God bless'em, just ain't cutting it.

I'm not advocating that system for the USA, but I do think the European model of votech and intermediate techinical specialization (without the votech "stigma") is a more reasonable course for those who just aren't good at reading Shakespeare. Produces a lot of qualified and able workers with good skills in the economy, and less "paper mill" degrees.
The US already has a system in place that offers practical, technical training to tens of thousands of Americans right out of high school both efficiently and effectively--on top of that it's a government run program. The private sector is desperate to replicate that model, but it's stunted at every turn by a public school system determined to produce the lowest common denominator generalists and shuffle them into college. I also wouldn't advocate a system where students are compelled to pursue a single career track their entire lives, but it'd be nice if Americans started thinking more about what they wanted to do for the next decade or so before they graduate high school.