Many Business Leaders Doubt U.S. Colleges Prepare Students.

Gallup: Few leaders believe U.S. colleges and universities are the best

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Do I hear Loco's footsteps?

You thought college was for work preparation?

That's why I chose a technical school. Hands on experience, on-job training, resume and interview skills and I get my Bachelors on top of all that.

Business leaders suck tbh.

So let's completely remove federal and state funding from schools and see what happens. That's the way it's going anyway.

I think you'd have a hard time making the case that anywhere but the U.S. has the best university system. Whether this translates to preparedness is a somewhat different matter.

Did you?

Yeah, business leaders are full of shit on that one.

going for any other reason is a waste of money

It might be your reason for going....but that doesn't mean it's going to get you ready for work. Two entirely different things...that a college student should be able to decipher.

That's what internships are for...aka slavery lol.

There is a huge disconnect between going to college and learning about your desired field, and then going out and doing work in your field. Those are two completely different, but both necessary, parts of the learning experience. Internships serve a majority of students in getting that needed work experience. One of my best friends is studying to be a game developer (code) and he just got an internship working for Microsoft. Not only is he incredibly likely to be hired by Microsoft having worked for them, but he's getting work experience in a highly technical, group oriented profession, which is absolutely essential.

He had to work REAL hard to get that internship though, and there was only so many spots available (and this is Computer Science, a MASSIVE field with a ton of students nowadays).

College students will just have to prove them wrong. Old people hold most professional positions. I should be able to replace some old fart.

That's kind of a tricky question. Most people right out of college don't have the skills for jobs. But they have the minds and the ability to be trained. Many higher end jobs will actually train their prospective employees in the specific skills needed. College is not vocational training, it's higher education. That higher education then allows someone to have the aptitude and skillsets to be trained.

Good. College should prepare students to help change the status quo, not submit to it.

College in the US today is becoming more and more like High school. Colleges today just try to get as many students as possible by having parents,guidance counselors, and teachers telling students they have to go to college, whether or not they are smart enough or entering a filed that requires additional education.

College used to be a place for people to educate and better themselves....now its just a place for universities to make money and babysit stupid young adults.

My biggest mistake was going to college. I withdrew and now have debt. It wasn't for me.

Exactly.

The more experience I gain in the professional world, the truer this statement rings.

It's not to say that none of them have anything to contribute, but a lot of them really just follow the herd and implement certain things to say they did something to their shareholders. A lot of them also have an oversized ego which leads them to make decisions which they are not qualified to make (like the VP at a previous company who laid off his entire development staff after completing their new system - someone forgot to tell him that you need an IT staff to maintain and evolve complex, mission critical systems).

College is a learning platform to help you develop basic skills for your desired field of work. Unfortunately, many people approach it as simply "school." I go to class, take a test, and get a grade. They do not attempt to apply their knowledge critically, they do not seek to explore subjects further then presented in the classroom, they fail to network with businesses in the community, etc.

In my opinion, a very small percentage of college students take advantage of college as a platform to grow your professional skills and make connections. When I was in college, I was able to identify these people, and I made it a point to surround myself with students that were there to increase their human capital. In all, I found college to be worth the investment, and I am who I am as a professional because of it.

Unfortunately, there are so many people who are absolutely wasting their time and money. I know that sounds mean, but I believe its the truth...

Well, yeah. Have you been to college lately? Only a few people in a few of them know what the hell they're doing. There's barely any writing going on; the single most important thing you can teach college students, and you have students coming out with BA's that don't know basic APA style.

I hate APA and MLA, Chicago Style's where it's at.

I know our college has a writing across the curriculum credit, and frankly I don't think we have the greatest standards. What I see a lot of, though, are a lot of students that aren't really prepared for what they're going to experience in college. I don't know if we should really be expecting colleges to make up for high school deficiencies.

Yet most advanced businesses still require a college degree for job applicants... How about they stop asking for one? Would certainly stop a lot of trouble and unnecessary debt.

Yet so many jobs unnecessarily require college degrees. Hell even becoming a secretary is tough without a degree. I guess businesses just like screwing with people?

It seems like many young adults have no idea that they're supposed to work hard for their careers. Many people are blaming student loans, not getting placed in the career they majored in, and what not...

But it seems like most people are just expecting to be handed a job right out of college...

Well historically thats what happened. It also seems like alot of people think because they accomplished something, everyone else can. And the people not as successful as them are somehow not as good as them.

Historically, people weren't nearly as lazy as this generation. The people working their asses off in today's economy generally aren't affected by the job shortage.

Historically every generation thinks the generation younger than them are lazy. Feel free to look back at what curmudgeons said about the hippies of the 60s.

....Do I really need to justify a claim of laziness about hippies? Please, tell me that's something that doesn't need to be discussed.

If hippies werent the baby boomers, maybe. They are the bill gates and steve jobbs.

College shouldn't just be about learning a trade and limiting your scope to such a narrow field. Higher education is more than just learning to do a specific task, it should be about ya know, LEARNING. I would be disappointing if education revolved around simply learning to run certain machines and performing mundane tasks that certain businesses want.

It should help you better understand how the world works and entertain the thought of differing view points. The goal being to make you a much more well rounded and informed individual on top of job skills.

On the other hand it's still nearly impossible to be hired for a decent job without a college level degree on your resume.

@playmynutz:

Except that the 'old farts' usually have three advantages:

a) they had a better education

b) they have years of experience

c) they aren't self-entitled lackwits, they were brought up to believe you *earn* what you aspire to

@Aquat1cF1sh:

That was my point. They can believe whatever they like, but until they change their hiring practices nothing is actually going to change.