Graduation Speech : Got Skills?

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Recommended: Education and the use of the internet

Got Skills? Your Computer Does. If so many people pursue a college education in hopes of entering the professional workforce upon graduation why, instead, do we have so many college graduates working in non-college jobs where more than 50% of their peers do not even have degrees? The answer may be that graduates simply lack the skills to compete with the seasoned and more experienced members of their respective fields. This mismatch, in the skills college students have upon leaving graduation and the skills need in the professional workforce, detrimentally undermines the value of a college education. However, there is hope for our long-lived system of higher education in a newer and yet unconventional form of education. Education via the internet has been utilized as a quick and easy means of learning new skills in the past decade. From “how-to-make-a-tie” videos to videos explaining those irksome math problems from freshman Algebra, people have looked online to step in where their available skills fall short. And yet, despite the success of online education, the question remains whether or not the internet is a credible means of education. In spite of the stigma placed online education, there is a vested interested in establishing a standard of credibility within this educational pathway. Specifically, by establishing a standard of credibility within online education, higher education can, once again, complement the skills sought after in the professional workforce. Current figures on the employment rate amongst college graduates leads students to think that a college education ensures a desirable job. From guidance counselors, to popular media sources, young adults are constantly being pushed towards pursuing a college education... ... middle of paper ... ...s the value of a higher education in that while a college degree is largely regarded as the surefire pathway to a professional career, a person’s chances of actually entering the professional workforce are closer to 50/50. There is a detrimental disparity between the skills students have upon graduation and the skills needed for the available jobs in the workforce. This skills-disparity heavily impacts the employment prospects of young students significantly. For example, in reference to a 2016 survey of 63,924 managers conducted by Payscale, an online service that helps people obtain real-time information about the job market, Karsten Strauss write that, “44% of managers surveyed said” that recent college grads were “most lacking in writing proficiency”. In addition to that Strauss cites that, “39% of managers found their recently matriculated hires to be lacking

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