Continuing Education In High School

For some students, the question of what to do after high school may be a burden to even contemplate as it approaches quicker and quicker. The pressure to continue another four (or more) years of education after high school can be overwhelming considering twelve years of schooling has already been completed; why go right back to school again? When’s break time? Some people are simply just not ready for college and they know it, or at least until after they have had a long break or have had some time to recollect themselves. Technically speaking college isn’t for everyone, nor is it necessarily needed for a career. Luckily today, there are many other options that potential career seeking beings can get a head start on such as community colleges and trade/vocational schools. These alternatives to a four year college are considered to be a good start on a job (and maybe even a career). The best benefits of these alternatives involve the cost of attending, the student environment, and the degrees offered.

Recent high school students are debating whether to or not attend college, should consider the benefits of attaining a college degree. For many low or middle income students, this a route to gain opportunities to improve their economic circumstances. An article, “Pathways to Prosperity,” states in 2008, workers with bachelor's degree make about 65 percent higher than high school graduates and workers with associate's degree make about 73 percent more than high school dropouts.. This is evidence obtaining a college degree can be an opportunity to have earnings higher and significantly increase one's income.

More often than not, young students are taught to believe that they must go to a prestigious university to obtain a Bachelor’s degree or higher in order to have a fulfilling and satisfying career. This may hold true for some people, but others do not need to follow this same path. For students who choose a career that isn’t considered conventional or isn’t high in pay, they tend to be looked down upon which pressures them into choosing career paths that they do not have a passion for, or the skill set to actually accomplish which makes college a waste of time and money. While everyone should be encouraged to get an education beyond high school, people should be encouraged to get the education that is relevant and proper for them to make sure they are getting their money’s worth.

Have you ever wondered why you couldn’t take a class at school that truly interests you, such as learning about the culinary arts or discovering the ins and outs of being an emergency medical technician? Vocational education is an option that is becoming increasingly popular for students seeking a wider variety of class choices. Sometimes, when people hear the words “vocational education,” a negative image pops into their minds. Many people believe that vocational education is primarily offered to non-college bound students, dropouts, or students with special needs. What people don’t realize is that vocational education can give students the opportunity to improve their employability skills, become informed about different career options, and learn helpful skills they can use throughout the rest of their lives even before going to college and being released into the real world. Therefore, I believe that vocational education should be offered to students.

This potential shortage of qualified workers has come to a level of conscious awareness and states such as Texas could benefit from the skill sets found within this diverse group of people (Hrabowski, 2012). Another problem centers on the need to fill the void that will be left by the large number of baby boomers who are close to retirement age (Malcolm, 2010). This phenomenon is not new, studies have established a correlation between earning a college degree and different socio-economic levels (Swaii, Redd, & Perna, 2003). Another study looked at the advantages of earning a post- secondary degree such as more pay, higher level of job satisfaction, movement between classes, access to better health insurance, and contributions as a tax payer (Baum, Ma, Payea, 2013). The Texas Higher Education plan “Closing the Gaps” has indicated the need for an educated workforce to contribute to the state’s prosperity and noted that an education takes an

When it comes to achieving success in the work force and finding a fulfilling and lucrative career there are few things more important that higher education. Going to college and getting a degree is essential in finding success in the work force. The problem is when the cost of gaining that degree outweighs the financial compensation the career that follows is able to supply. Very few people are able to pay for college out of pocket. The result of this is that students seeking higher education are forced to take out massive student loans. This means that they are entering the work force

Arnold H. Glasow once stated, “Success is simple. Do what's right, the right way, at the right time.” Success comes in multiple forms depending on who you are and what your values consist of. In this article, Why Everyone Shouldn’t Go to College, written by Larry Cuban and reposted in the Washington Post by Valerie Strauss, pontificates on the importance of informing students college doesn’t always equate to success. More than half of college graduates flee into low-paying jobs even with high educational degrees. Cuban sheds some light on the alternatives to make money without spending a ridiculous amount on college. With that said, educating young scholars on the options they possess instead of hiding them, will further increase

“The pay gap between college graduates and everyone else reached a record high last year.” Quoted from the article ‘Is College Worth It? Clearly, New Data Say’ by David Leonhardt, Sometimes, not often, society tells us that College is not worth our time or money, But receiving a college degree will bring what you learned in the classroom into the real world, which benefit you on your quest to success. The education system has always been a major element in todays society. The more knowledge an individual has the better their success rate, some people believe a high school diploma is enough and it is, for a fast food restaurant.

Career and technical schools are educational facilities that allow students to explore a specific career or field that they are interested in. They offer approximately sixteen different career and technical choices and over 70 different sub-careers ranging from Education and Training, Government and Public Administration, Manufacturing, Information Technology, Finance, Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to Transportation, Distribution and Logistics plus other career fields of interest that appeal to the students. The Career and Technical Education Schools are able to fulfill the needs of employers who are looking for specific criteria when hiring a new employee to fill an available position within their company. () Since the students

“According to the U.S Department of education, if you graduated in the bottom 40% of your high school class and went to college, 76 of 100 won’t earn a diploma, even if given 8 ½ years.” Marty Nemko believes that going to college isn’t for everyone and that it’s turned into a business depending on which university you attend. Nemko also gives some good examples, such as Morris, who completed his bachelor's degree from University of California, Berkeley and works as a truck driver to support his family. (ADD THESIS PART TWO) Nemko mentions that “ colleges are businesses, and students are a cost item while research is a profit center. (33)

Great emphasis is placed on obtaining a a degree from a higher university. When you go to apply for jobs nowadays, you need an associates or a bachelors just to get your foot in the door unlike how the job world once was years ago. As a student currently enrolled at a traditional 4 year university, I knew that this was where I needed to be in High school in order have the fighting opportunity in my dream career. A lot of students are told that in order to receive a fat check in their career, you need a college degree, so then they push students in high school to take the SAT and ACT, and to focus maintaining a high GPA so that the door to a seat at a top university can be filled by them. With that being said, I’ve come to the realization that not everyone is set-up to have the opportunity to achieve these goals.

Bok states, “According to one survey, 60 percent of Arts and Sciences professors do not even think that preparing for a job is a particularly important goal for undergraduates” (Derek Bok, 36). Bok is quite puzzled since about three-fourths of new college students presume preparing for a job is the key component of attending college. According to Bok, Liberal arts professors believe that once they integrate some aspect of a vocational program students will become more concentrated on learning the competent skills necessitated by the jobs. Bok also provides background information on vocational program in which he states that, “Since the average length of time people stay in their first job has shrunk dramatically, more and more employers want their employees to “hit the ground running” without having to receive costly training before the company” (Derek Bok, 39). Students are already being pressured by employers to have these skills needed for the job perfected by the time they graduate so the companies won’t spend resources on training. With the pressures employers place on the arriving college students they feel as if they have to choose a career and prepare for it as

     It seems in the society we live in today, having a college degree is a necessity. Years ago it was the norm for people to just go right into a full time job after high school, if they even finished high school; they did this to support their families. In today’s society a person has a difficult time getting a decent job without a college degree. During an adults working life, bachelor degree graduates will earn about $2.1 million and a high school graduate can expect to earn an average of $1.2 million (Day and Newburger, 2002). This is quite a difference and it puts a college education in

“Families from low-Socioeconomic status communities are less likely to have the financial resources or time availability to provide children with academic support” (National Center for Education Statistics, 2008).This quote difinitively provides the necessary information regarding attending post-secondary education. Even though this quote also seems very logical, it proves to be a breaking point for Americans in their decision to attend a post-secondary education college or technical school. Important matters regarding post-secondary education are very simplistic, such as raising Americans economic status, and bettering one’s stereotypical educational outlook. Another main facet of attending post-secondary education leads to better opportunities to the finely tuned occupations in America. The last archetype of attending post-secondary education contains the equalizers of job placement and betterment, including the socio-economic status of that individual. In the United States there is a belief that post-secondary education raises the socioeconomic status of that scholar.

Throughout the history of civilization, education has been an important tool in shaping an individual as well as the society that the individual is a part of. In the older civilizations, only the elite upper class had access to education. This kept these people at the top of the social ladder, and suppressed the common people who did not have access to the same education as the nobles. We have come a long way since then, with every child having access to a free high school degree. However, there is still some inequality in this modern education system that has similarities to the old injustices. In this day and age, a college degree is a great start for a young adult starting to enter the work force. According to a study conducted by Pew