More and more teachers at the high school level in American public schools are sending a new message to students:  there is an alternative to a college education, and you can become successful and be financially secure without that sheepskin.  Believe it or not, most of the jobs high school graduates are likely to find, with or without a degree from a four year college or university, do not require the possession of a degree.

During the 1960s and 1970s in American public schools, there were plenty of vocational tracks a student could enter that would ensure job opportunities after high school, such as machine shop, auto mechanics, cosmetology, and even radio and television.  These vocational tracks were modeled after the needs of the immediate community;  if one community had manufacturing facilities, then the vocational tracks were geared toward providing workers who could fill those jobs.  If a young woman or man knew that he or she wanted to work in a salon, they would be trained during high school and guided through the state licensure program and be ready to enter the job force upon graduation.  They even had internships where the students could spend part of their last two years of high school getting invaluable on the job experience and networking with professionals already established in the field, so that entry into the job market was even easier for them once they graduated.

Sometime during the 1980s and 1990s, this practice began to decline, possibly due to relationships built between local school districts and community colleges.  The community colleges needed students, after all, so bumping up vocational training to the two-year college level and taking it out of high schools meant that people would now have to cough up funds to attend  those community colleges.  Supporting community colleges is important — don’t get me wrong — but at the expense of the local school districts’ ability to provide adequate job training for its students, moving those vocational tracks up to the post-secondary level could be regarded as criminal.

What this country needs is to return to providing training for real world jobs in real world communities.  There are still vocational tracks available at high schools around the country, so make sure that you find out about them early, so you can enjoy the benefits of being prepared for a career that does not require a college degree.  After all, you probably won’t need one.