Employers are fed up with college 'waste,' opt for skilled blue-collar workers instead

https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/e...waste-opt-skilled-blue-collar-workers-instead

only 8.7% are favorable at all to college degrees. I am one of those people who believe that college anymore is worthless and used more so for adults who refuse to grow up that are looking for story time rather than learning. I’ve met more High school drop outs with better sense than recent college grads. Not saying there are not college grads that are good but by and large the diploma means next to nothing to me. I don’t do the hiring at my job but I hold a decent amount of influence hiring and my opinion is valued. I would never take a college diploma over experience, not in a million years.

 

Things seem to have changed in some venues. I left a job in 1979 to earn an MBA full time. It seemed like you were going nowhere without it in the corporate world.

One old guy at my previous employer really got on my nerves. He was the head of the major capital investment project analysis department. Many people wanted to get into his department. He refused to hire anyone within the company to work in his department who didn’t have an MBA regardless of how good their reviews were from their department heads. Yet, this old guy didn’t even have a college degree.

 

In certain tech fields the college degree is certainly not what it once was as a credential for being hired. IT being an example. I think a degree still has value in certain professional fields, i.e. doctor, lawyer, CPA, and what not. Probably a local community college is always going to provide some cost effective value to students with respect to finding a job and a career. College has always had a certain amount of required BS. At a university, I had to take a black studies class in the early 70s which ironically was taught by a blond haired white woman. In this class I learned that expressions such as "dark day" were racist. lol

One more observation. In the county I live in, the local sheriff deputies have a minimum of an A.S. degree and many have a four year degree. Possibly as a result, they seem to conduct themselves in a very professional manner.

 

And why would a college degree be useful for a blue collar worker? Has it ever been for that part of the work force? Just wondering.

I guess if you ask employers that pretty much hire blue collar workers, they'll tell you that a college degree is useless. It's like asking whether the sky is blue.

 

Did anyone ever ask the old guy to explain his logic? The answer would have likely been interesting.

 

Some college graduates think they are entitled. They think they are going to be vice president of the company in a couple years. My niece is a highly successful district manager in a materials logistics company. She’s just over 30. She says the recent graduates are difficult to manage because they think they are entitled to promotions with minimal effort.

 

A college degree will never replace work ethic.

 

You are right. Work ethics can’t be taught in college. But that doesn’t mean next week when I need to go for my eye exam, I will go to a high school dropout because he has good work ethics.

 

By the same token, I wouldn't want to go to a doctor with a shitty work ethic that barely made it through med-school, or cheated his way through.

 

I agree. You will find someone with good work ethics and med-school graduate.

 

I don't think the OP is referring to doctors, anyway.

I think it's more industrial type jobs, where positions required a degree, not a degree with specific training. Engineering, accounting, business management, those can all be learned OJT.

My supervisor has a degree. He was picked to be the supervisor because he has a degree. He'll be the first to admit that there's nothing that he learned in college that applies to his job position.

 

Yep, my son just graduated from high school earlier this year. He has a couple of friends who barely made it with a 2.0 GPA. Somehow, I don't have a feeling that they will be the next Bill Gates

Second, you can bet that ALL of the posters on here complaining about how useless a college degree is, will be, or have been sending their own kids to college.

 

There may likely be some truth to that, but we have to examine it carefully to see precisely what it means.

There is something called "the fallacy of composition" that says that what may hold true for the individual is not always going to hold true for a large group of individuals or the society as a whole.

The question in this case is does expanding college education actually help the economy and add more good jobs? Or does it just help individuals get the better jobs that exist.

 

"Fact or Fiction? The claim that 80% of billionaires lack a college degree is indeed true. According to a study conducted by Wealth-X and UBS, a global financial services company, a significant majority of billionaires did not graduate from college."

https://ts2.space/en/is-it-true-that-80-of-billionaires-dont-have-a-college-degree-2/#gsc.tab=0

[/Quote]Second, you can bet that ALL of the posters on here complaining about how useless a college degree is, will be, or have been sending their own kids to college.[/QUOTE]

I have four adult children. One is attending college, by his choice.

One is a diesel mechanic making $36.00 per hour, at 23 years old.

One is a restauranttuer, GM of a Chili's, looking at opening her own joint, 26 years old.

One is a certified pipeline welder. He's making $38.00 per hour, plus per diem, travel pay, this bonus, that bonus and another bonus, at 28 years old.

The three that have jobs have little to no competition for those jobs, from anyone in their age bracket.

My son that's the welder is the youngest welder on his crew. The second youngest welder is 36.

I think there's more long term money in a trade.

 

And there is nothing wrong with that. I don't think anyone ever said that EVERYBODY should go to college. In fact, my son has two friends who are going to trade school, and a third is in communit college, but probably heading to the car mechanic direction.

Howwever, just because people can get well-paying jobs without going to college, doesn't mean that college is useless. And that's what the OP is trying to imply with the title of his meesage, and all the other anonymous internet college "haters" are jumping into. However, you can bet if their kid would get a PhD degree from Harvard, they would be jumping up and down with joy.

 

You said...

"Second, you can bet that ALL of the posters on here complaining about how useless a college degree is, will be, or have been sending their own kids to college."

 

I've had a few conversations with a buddy of mine about this. He did the university side, and I did a trade school. Both to moderate success.

One thing he see's, and I'm inclined to agree, is that getting a degree isn't as much a sign that your amazingly proficient in that specific field, but that it shows that you spent the time grinding the 4 years of study/papers/work necessary to pass. Shows dedication, the ability to get through things that may not be all that 'interesting' but are essential to complete to earn your degree, and seeing something of that significance to your life through to the end.

Another way, the skills you learn, aren't necessarily specific to the topics of the class.

That said, I'm glad that the blue-collar work-world is starting to regain the respect it used to have.

 

Let me name one for you. In field techs. That’s what I am and many people we have gotten out of college for things like controls, mechanics, and programming are dumber than a sack of rocks. And your smugness towards blue collar intelligence is well noted.

Blue collar is what makes the world go round. We can live without whatever else you’re referring to.

 

We've been hiring a lot of kids recently with some type of STEM degree. Some are incredible and have a great work ethic. Some just are crap. We're hitting about 50-30-20 crap-OK-great. PhD is no different. Some of those people just blow your mind while I don't know how others get their shoes tied in the morning. Some just want to do research and we aren't a research place.

 

I have nothing against blue collar workers. Not everyone needs a college degree to do useful work.

On the other hand, you seem to feel a need to denigrate people with a college degree. Why would that be? Could it be that you are defensive? Or, could it be that RW media has trained you that students get liberal brainwashing in college?

In any case, I'd recommend you place "must be high-school dropout" in your future job ads. Let's see how far you go.

 

Its still very much true .The study in question was done in the construction industry and with political agenda in mind. In my industry (IT) its pretty much impossible to get a job without a college degree.

In construction industry a college degree is not much use, and never was, except for electrical engineers, architects, structural engineers etc, but a guy doing drywalls, plumbing, framing, roofing, concrete etc don't need it, and many of those jobs pay a decent wage.

War on higher education is alive and well.

 

College kids care more about Snapchat, onlyfans, and social perceptions than work. College grads are worthless in todays workforce. 8% was somewhat favorable let that sink in. That’s a very low number no matter how you look at it, so my view is far from a singular view point. Your attitude likely proves my point more than it disproves it.

 

And yet you vote republican, Why?
Republican policy would have those trades paying far less, while giving incentives for the owners to have the ability to replace workers with little no no hassle when they get hurt. Republican policy would gut OSHA, etc.

 

The most dangerous people I worked with underground were fresh out of college engineer's.

Looks good on paper, doesn't come close to experience workers..

 

If only colleges could teach a work ethic.
Lots of today's younger generation show up to work whenever they feel like it, at whatever time they feel like moseying in.

They do a half ass bare minimum job and sit on their phone as much as possible and act like they are doing people a favor simply by showing up.