University, College, Vocational School, You Name it - The Higher Education System is Broken and We All Need a Job!

Continuing to a Higher Education Every Day We Live is Vital to Life

Every now and then you’ll catch me ranting about how important taking control of your own education is when you are continuing education, what you choose to learn, how you use the knowledge, and of course encouraging you to search for knowledge and education from all the various venues of life. I've been meaning to write this rant on continuing education for a while, but just have been so busy with other things. Then last night, I got talking with my niece, who graduated high school back in May, as it had been a while since I had talked with her, we had some catching up to do.

I found that she’s doing really good, working as an assistant manager at a chain retail store, and then I had asked if she was planning on continuing education by going to a university or college of some sort. Can you guess what her reply was? Well, my niece replied with a lively “nope, I don’t plan on going to college anytime soon, either.” I thought… how perfect… now is the time for me to give her a quick heads up on how to get a useful and valuable education, gain real knowledge, and how to put that knowledge to work for her, all while helping her avoid that ridiculously expensive college tuition fee. With the tuition fee being raised for pretty much every college, university, and vocational school around the world, I thought that maybe you, my reader, would like a quick heads up on continuing education - how to get a useful and valuable education, gain real knowledge, and how to put that knowledge to work for you as well.

The Opportunity to Secure a Future... Debt

My niece and I were discussing if it was really worth sticking through several years of college just to obtain a BA, MA, or some other advanced degree. You see, I took online courses at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, studying Interactive Media and Web Design, which happens to be a big interest of mine. Now to be fair, I have to admit that I had actually been researching the field of Interactive Media and Web Design before I went back to school. At the time I went back to school I was a single parent of 2 young children, so when the Art Institute called me up, asking me to go to their school, saying they had job placement, I thought that maybe this was the opportunity I needed to take in order to secure the future for my children and myself. I actually did quite well for being a single parent; I graduated in the top of my class. However, in the process of working my butt off, I incurred a $15,000+ college debt, for knowledge and education that I had already been seeking out and obtaining before I had gone to college.

Yep, the Higher Education System is Broken Alright, Just Look.

Going through the online courses, I realized I could have simply picked up some books that I was already interested in reading and I would have gained the same knowledge for a much lesser price, and more of the knowledge would have stuck with me as well. I also realized that colleges, universities, and vocational schools, are just a continuation of public schools, except for the fact that they make more money. You may wonder how I can compare public schools to a university, college, or vocational school; after all, that tuition fee you pay year after year is no public school fund. So here is my case: All public schools, colleges, universities, and vocational schools generally give you a curriculum to follow - telling you what questions you need to find answers for and asking you to process those answers into your memory - thus giving you the fish instead of teaching you how to fish. If you have read my other rant on Continuing Education for Free, then you already know that there are many who have gone to a university or college of some sort that say they retained very little of the knowledge and applicable skills that they were taught. You don’t think giving them the fish was the cause of that, do you? Obviously the current education system is broken. What I was doing before I decided to go back to school was fishing for the knowledge - asking questions for myself then searching for the answers; searching the internet for information, picking up books related to my questions, and experimenting with the information I found - and in turn, the knowledge that I obtained stuck with me, making it more useful and valuable.

What skills, experiences, and education are essential for us to have in order to achieve and build things that will have the impact on our future and the world that we know we can have?

Do you remember that job placement I said that the Art Institute had promised? Well, that was more of a simple instruction to put my resume portfolio on their server, then hope and pray someone will call me with a job offer. Some job placement that is… please pardon my language but as the saying goes… crap in one hand and wish in the other, then see which one fills up faster. I could simply put my resume portfolio up on any job service board like Monster, and get the same result. Which is funny, because that was the other instruction that my personal advisor had given me, saying that doing so would make more opportunities available to me, but wait... I was doing that before I decided to go back to school as well. So what exactly did I get $15,000+ in debt for? Yes, I know I didn’t have the degree back when I was posting my resume before, however, I could have easily continued to use independent study, experiment, and build my resume portfolio without college, and still had the same result. Moreover, just by making a few contacts, putting my skills out there, and seeking help from the contacts made to get into an internship or apprenticeship type of program would give me just the experience needed to improve my career, and in the long run is much less expensive than going to college. After all, it is knowledge and experience that employers are looking for, and if you can show them you know what you are doing and you do it quite well you will have a much higher possibility of getting the job, then someone with a BA or MA fresh out of school and no professional experience at all. If you really want that BA or MA you can always take my suggestion to independent study and get experience in the field of your independent study through contacts, internships, and apprenticeships, then when you do go to a university, college, or vocational school, you can get several credit hours earned for 'prior learning' AKA life experience.

Copyright © 01/02/12 by A.K. Love (dragnhaze)

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