Importance Of Academic Skills In Education

In “Preparing for a Career”, Derek Bok, president of Harvard Law School and author, argues how universities, more specifically liberal arts colleges, should include training for a certain occupation with regular college classes to better prepare a student for the real world after college. Considering that Bok has earned his degrees at some of the most well-known universities like Stanford University and Harvard, he has a better understanding at what students are missing and what they need to be successful. However, on the other hand, not many professors and students see or agree with Bok’s point of view. They do not agree that students need the vocational training during their years in a liberal arts college, even though students need both; an education that helps them become critical thinkers and skilled communicators as well as skilled workers in a certain career. So why not help students with their career along with their regular core courses?

Likewise, high school does not teach students the critical life skills in which needed to use for the rest of their lives. For example, graduates are expected to know how to manage money, negotiate, and how to communicate effectively. However, the problem is they were never taught these direct skills. Instead, they had been taught how to memorize information that would be needed for a one time test. Additionally, when these graduates reach the workforce and are expected to

Parents want their children to have a successful career, so they feel obligated to choose a career path that will do just that. Parent tend to want to send their kids to college to obtain a medical degree, law degree, or business degree because they want them to make a lot of money and not ever have to worry about debt. When a parent chooses a career path for their kid, it puts a lot of pressure on him or her because they want to make their parents happy or have them pay for their college. So, this leaves the students not enjoying the classes they are taking or the college experience because they are doing what mom and dad want them to do.

Student need to do what they love. Find something that they will want to study or risk never being successful because they’ll be bored with their job. College has a huge variety of programs that can be studied so chances are there is one out there for everyone. If students find something they love to do then college really won’t be too difficult and they will like their job afterwards. “Education is about finding out what form of work for you is closest to being play” (Edmundson), jobs should be something enjoyable, almost like having fun doing a hobby. People need to do what they love so they won’t be bored or held back by their lack of enthusiasm and excel to and move up in the workplace being more and more successful.

Another point Kirn seems to overlook is the premise that many high schools, especially in Canada, offer introductory courses to university level material; such as courses in law, psychology, calculus, and even some higher level sciences. For many students taking these courses can give them insight as to what exactly they are in for in the coming years of their post-secondary life. For example a student could leave grade 11 physics thinking that they love the material and have enough of a grip on the math that they might be able to pursue a career down that path. However, upon taking calculus and a higher level physics course coupled they suddenly realize that they in fact hate math and

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.

The main courses that we are taught throughout elementary and high school are English, Math, Science, and Social Studies. While those subjects are important, not everyone will use those studies throughout their lifetime, whereas if they taught subjects like balancing a checkbook, how to fill out job applications and write a resume, how to do an interview, first aid, and so many other skills, everyone would carry that with them and find that information useful after they get out of high school.

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.

“Misconception No.1: A liberal arts education is a luxury that most families can no longer afford. ‘Career-education’ is what we must now focus on.” (Ungar, 2010, pp.191) As Ungar has claimed, there is a recent misconception that a liberal arts education is no longer a necessity but luxury because it doesn’t provide an instant career launching education. With so many people having to a need to spend as little money as possible, they are determined to only spend money on preparation for their future career. For this reason they go to college only to take courses that are necessary for their future. “She is in college to take vocational training. She wants to write computer code. Start a business. Get a job in television. She uses college to take vocational courses that pertain to her career interest.” (Murray, 2008, pp.228) Murray explained the story of a girl who is in college solely for preparation for her career. Because of this, she isn’t interested in a liberal arts education. If the course doesn’t directly pertain to her desired career, she prefers not to take it.

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

Imagine this: A modern student, pushed on by her parents, teachers, and guidance counselors, works her way through the entire available set of math, science, engineering, and technology courses her high school and subsequent college have to offer. She completes only the bare minimum of arts classes to graduate: four years of english, two years of foreign language, a year of fine arts, the required government and economics classes. She doesn’t care too much about them. She’s going to be a civil engineer. Why would she need all these extra skills when her career is all about math and science?

In fact, just the other day while taking the online survey to help me select my major, I saw myself paying attention to the salaries each occupation tends to make instead of focusing on occupations I can turn into my career and end up enjoying. It seems like now a days more individuals are deciding to go to college just because society has tied this whole notion of “if you go to college then you’ll earn more.” My problem isn’t the fact that individuals are simply going to college in order to earn a higher wage, but the fact that the earning of some occupations may discourage an individual from doing what he or she desires to do with their life. That individual may be forced to select a career that has higher earnings opposed to selecting an occupation they enjoy doing. As a result of this, in the future this individual will be stuck doing something they particularly don’t enjoy doing as their every day

The knowledge and skills obtained while in high school could have assisted me in my future with things such as college or employment, because in high school I would have learned social skills, like communicating professionally with my bigger bosses, the owner of the company, or the CEOs. This is information and skills that could have assisted me in my future and helped me define the type of person that I could have become. A student is taught ethics and problem solving skills, for example, how to get the work done right or how to make a customer or guest satisfied. Also,

Having a career is a standard of life that is necessary for the well-being of humans and providing comfort for their families. It is very important to plan ahead for the career that you want to pursue in the future. Doing this can help you make the decision to keep pursuing that career or find a different career that interests you. Having a plan for your future can help you find a job that you are passionate about, and researching your career can help you become more qualified for that job. In this day and age it is getting harder to find a good paying job without a college degree, so it is important to succeed in high school so you can go to college and get a job that has a good salary.

“Too many students aren’t sure what job they could get after four, five, or even six years of studying a certain major and racking up education loans”(255). Singletary is given the fact that numerous students are confused on their own majors even though they have studied for years. And parts of the students even start realizing their majors might be in a hopeless employment situation after they graduate from that particular field. Therefore, before choosing a field of study, it is necessarily worthwhile for students and parents to check out the majors whether in the highest or the lowest unemployment. According to new statistics on unemployment for recent college graduates by The Huffington Post this June, majoring in social science and creative fields, such as anthropology, film, fine art, etc. have earned the top three of the unemployment rate. In contrast, engineering technologies, math, and computer science remain at the top of the employment chart. Alex Tabarrok mentions the harsh unemployment rate in his article, “…More than half of all humanities graduates end up in jobs that don’t require college degrees…”(250). The society has never shown mercy to students who are unlikely to be employed with the majors they have. Graduating without employment must be one of the biggest nightmares for most students; however, selecting an in demand major can surely decrease the chances of being