Can you explain the trend of high school graduates attending vocational schools instead of heading off to attend a state university?

The classic family board game, "Life" taught another generation that winning in life comes from going to college because it guaranteed success.  That's not true any more.  Corporations have switched from looking for strong diplomas to finding strong workers who put big numbers on the board instead of big certificates on the wall.  The film, Jerry McGuire, has a line that calls this philosophical switch 'show me the money'. 

 

The old system required advanced, formal education to move ahead in career and cash flow.  That system doesn't work well anymore, so now young people have figured out that it's about impressive results way more than impressive resumes.

 

The line between adulthood and adolescence begins with the ability to pay your own bills because the rent comes due at the first of the month for everybody. High school graduates who don't have wealthy parents to pay for college discover this truth years ahead of their peers who went to college with the stated major of 'undecided' to finish five years later with a liberal arts degree and then move back in with their parents because they can't land a job or are simply too afraid to look for one. 

 

Teens from Vo/tech launch into their careers early and have to make a choice.  They trade:

-fraternity football games for finding their fit at work

-playing and party life for paying dues in real life

-being in the cool crowd for being confident in the crowd

-Parents or student loans paying their bills for a stronger FICO score without long term debt

-Ability to win at Trival Pursuit for being years ahead of better educated peers who now pursue them in career skills and training

-boring college professors in classrooms for bad managers on the job, (weak leadership crosses every part of our culture, but at least you are getting paid on the job to endure it, instead of someone paying for lectures that may never be used once in the real world of work.)

 

Look at the gap between the expectations of a university education to the bottom line.  You pay $50,000 to a state university and expect your son or daughter to land a good paying job. Many parents and students discover too late that knowing how to conjugate verbs and understand the interpretation of modern art is not valued or compensated in most of the business world. 

 

Career confidence comes from taking action to do something instead of just talking about it.

 

Winning early in career success comes from a combination of work experiences, job skills and personal discipline to build on gifts and strengths; never from just getting good grades.  I'm not against formal education and have a wall full of educational accomplishments to show it, along with continual improvement from reading, studying and responding to the changes in the world around me.  Leaders are life-long readers, however, if a young person has to get results in their career now- job training will beat essay questions every time. 

 

Knowing how to do something well and having a disciplined work ethic is the fastest way to move forward into a life of your own, away from the security of mom and dad's money.

 

 

 

 

Dwight Bain Bio:
Author, Nationally Certified Counselor & Certified Family Law Mediator in Orlando based practice since 1984 with a primary focus on solving crisis events and managing major change. Critical Incident Stress Management expert with the Orange County Sheriffs Office and trainer for over 1,000 business groups on the topic of making strategic change to overcome major stress, both personally & professionally. Corporate clients include: Toyota, State Farm, Du Pont, Bank of America & Disney. Organizational clients include the US Army, Florida Hospital & the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. Quoted in: Investors Business Daily, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Atlanta Journal-Constitution & Orlando Sentinel.

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