Texas Colleges Aim to Get in Sync With Labor Market
Assaying the output of higher education in Texas, Michael Bettersworth evoked the image of a crippled Apollo 13 craft hurtling into space, its future uncertain.
“Houston, we have a problem, and it’s not that too few people are going to college,” said Bettersworth, an associate vice chancellor at the Texas State Technical College System. “It’s that too many people are getting degrees with limited value in the job market.”
Students throughout Texas are amassing college credits without knowing whether they will lead to employment, and many face serious debt when they graduate.
Meanwhile, the state’s population of ...
Comments (12)
Hannah Katz
Good article and good points. We need to educate more workers with skills that industry can use or the industries will go elsewhere.
It reminds me of the Occupy protestor that complained she had accumulated over $80,000 in college debt, pursuing a degree in Lesbian Studies, and now couldn't find a professional job to help her pay off her student loans.
Dr. Carol Folbre
Great article and critical point! Colleges need to provide clear, educational pathways that link with the current, real-world economy.
gypsy314 ne
Another thing colleges could do to help out is lower there rates. And offer same deal to Americans as they do for illegal aliens. Why can the states sue the country's were the illegal aliens are from for cost to there budgets to cover the illegal aliens using our welfare and everything else related?
Anyone but Obama!
Remember a vote for a democrat is a vote for Obama and illegal aliens , homosexuals and terrorist.
Schumacher Michael via Texas Tribune on Facebook
My son had to move to Midland/Odessa to enroll in Welding tech. Dallas community colleges dont offer it. They use to offer welding, but due to cutbacks it has been dropped at all campuses.
Curtis McMinn via Texas Tribune on Facebook
This seems to match what Steve Jobs told Obama during their dinner in California. They can't find enough operators to run the kind of production they need.
Carolyn Appleton
At an even more basic level, this article points out why we need more of what an organization like Kim Bunting's "Business-Access" of Dallas provides. See: http://www.business-access.com/ba/.
Tim Thomas via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Helping you prepare for the jobs of yesterday.
Jose B. Gonzalez via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Many people on welfare are in need of job training & education opportunities. Why not make it a condition of receiving benefits, that they must be enrolled in certain training programs & make easy to obtain student loans available to them.
Mary Drennon via Texas Tribune on Facebook
@Schumacher Michael: He could have stayed closer to home. TSTC Waco has a great welding program@!
David Huang via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Hire me then.
Texascattleco
There are still and will continue to be demands for vocations that don't require four year degrees. I have a master's degree but used skills I learned in vocational programs to earn a living for several years. Yes, we need college graduates but we also need skilled people in trades who can provide for their families the income needed, with the skills learned in vocational programs and community colleges.
Alice Taylor
Yes, and the new STAARS test will make sure every high school student is ready for a four year college, where he can major in Political Science and minor in Philosophy. Gov Perry was just commenting on that the other day. I guess he likes the new standards even as he trashes public education here in Texas.
I've been teaching in a public high school for over a decade and I'm now teaching AP and advanced classes in my field in the vo-tech area (now it's called CTE for Career and Technology Education) and I can sleep at night knowing my seniors will leave school prepared for either a job OR college.
If a kid asks me if he should take a two year CISCO certification (costing about 5K at the local community college and earning about 50K a year in salary upon graduation) or a four year Bachelors of Art in English (costing about 120K at Baylor which will get you a nice job at Starbucks while you finish that novel) I know what I'd say. The choice is a no-brainer in my book.