So, Generation X, who is picking up this expense? “What’s not watered down is the tab. The cost of average tuition rose 6.5 percent this fall, and a report released on Dec. 1 by the Project on Student Debt showed that the IOU is getting bigger.” (Time)
Ummmmm, hold on, let me get this straight … Generation X has seen its retirement largely wiped out by two recessions in one decade, pensions are a ghost of Christmas past, college tuition costs are headed toward the stratosphere, the Baby Boomers are putting off retirement to recoup some of their market losses effectively locking Generation X out of lucrative higher salaried senior management positions, the housing market has crashed so many of us have negative or no equity, we have little or no access to credit ... and if we want our children to have any hope of an economically viable future we need to cough up at least $20,000 plus per child for college! All while we attempt to rebuild our retirement accounts?!
What is the return on investment for our $20,000 plus per child? So they can take jobs that previously only required a high school diploma? What changed in the past thirty years? Did the work become harder? Did the college degree become dumber? Or are employer’s failing to apply critical thinking skills to their hiring decisions by using a Bachelor’s degree as a simple screening tool. Case in point, I recently saw a job posting by a well known Silicon Valley employer for an administrative assistant position … only those with Bachelor degrees from top tier schools and solid academic records are invited to apply. Really? I need a Bachelor’s Degree from Stanford to be an administrative assistant? Really?
Here is a posting for an office manager position that requires applicants to have a four-year degree:
Job Duties:
As our Office Manager you will be expected to:
Provide general office support to a 50+ employee company; coordinate internal and external meetings and schedule catering as needed; Organize special events (holiday party, picnics, employee recognition) and meetings; Review and update office processes to ensure the office is operating cost effectively and procedures are ran efficiently; Keep maintenance of office supplies, and kitchen needs; developing a systematic way of ordering and keeping inventory; Create and maintain company communications; org charts, phone list, presentations; Manage office expansion, employee moves, adds and changes, and space planning; Develop and maintain vendor relationships associated with buildings, furniture, maintenance and contractor; Additional projects and duties as assigned.
I am sorry but I am not seeing anything in those job duties that requires a person to spend four-years in college. These are all skills that could be learned through a few years of job experience, maybe some software training and … perhaps as a year or two as an administrative assistant! Hell, being a “room mom” or a “team mom” will largely prepare you for the job above … no college needed!
“Employers stress that a basic degree remains essential, carefully tiptoeing around the idea that its value has plummeted. But they admit that the degree alone is not the ace it once was; now they emphasize work experience as a way to make yourself stand out.” (Time) Take that argument one-step farther, who are these “employers” who make this assertion. Ah, many are of the Baby Boomer generation, the same Baby Boomers who mandated college as a birthright … if they were to say the value of college degree has decreased due to an over supply in the market … well, that would make them hypocrites, now wouldn’t it.
To read one news story, there are so many degree holders in the U.S. that the value has become watered down; to hear the President tell it, the U.S. does not have enough college graduates to remain competitive.
