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The best thing about vocational schools is that industry has direct input and control over them. If they put out a crappy product (students) then their students won't be as readily hired or at lease are at a disadvantage. Some schools work with local businesses and shops to ensure their curriculum is MARKETABLE and that it makes their students more EMPLOYABLE. Such a thing would be a SHOCK to the academia-minded universities who somehow think that academia should dictate the industry.
I am reluctant to make blanket statements about schools and education, but more and more I think I am comfortable saying that the higher education industry in this country is falling apart.
I work with a lot of young engineers. Some are pretty good to work with, and some are just worthless. I suspect it has more to do with the quality of the student than the quality of the program. I actually had one of the young guys that I thought was decent tell me that one of the things they taught them was that when they got out into the real job world they would encounter old guys who would try to give them advise and tell them how to do things. The professor said these old guys would tell them that they had been in the industry for xx years and they knew what would work. The professor told them to ignore these old know it all fools. Said if those guys had any brains they would have gone to college and gotten a good job instead of being a knuckle dragger their whole career. Basically, your smart, their not. Don't forget that. Luckily, the young engineer decided the professor was the one who wasn't very smart and he worked with us, asked questions and accepted advise.
Trade schools really aren't much better. I have hired mechanics out of some of the big name trade schools and some of those guys ended up being pretty decent, and some couldn't change oil without help.
I honestly think that if you go to college or trade school and your tuition check doesn't bounce you will get a degree.
All that said, I think shop programs in high school really do have a lot of value. There are a lot of young kids that don't realize they have any interest or a talent for a trade until they are exposed to it in a school shop class. I don't think high school shop classes should be viewed as taking the place of an apprenticeship or other training. They are not going to produce someone who is ready to enter the job market, but they do give kids a general knowledge base about what is involved in building and making things and a percentage of the students find an interest in something that often leads to a good career.
My son is 25 years old and didn't go to college or trade school. He is making close to 6 figures working on natural gas compressors. He just has a real talent for understanding what is going on with them and has a lot of natural mechanical ability. He spent the first 5 years of his career right out of high school working for an automotive shop. He got that job because he got A grades in the course and his high school shop teacher recommended him. After he got some experience to open the door, he went to work on stationary engines and gas compressors. When he interviewed for the compression job they didn't even care that he didn't go to trade school. He passed their hands on tests and answered the questions correctly. He had never worked on big compressors, but had studied up on them a little and had a basic idea of how they worked which also impressed the interviewers. They hired him as an entry level mechanic. By the end of his first year they had given him 5 dollars an hour in pay raises and put him in a field service truck.
Better than half the guys my son hung around with in high school went to college. Those guys got some debt to show for it and a few of them finished and got a degree. One of the guys that got a degree is working at the local K-Mart, another one is working in the crusher at a local coal mine. I don't know what happened to all of them, but to my knowledge none of them are in first rate careers yet. One of his friends that also skipped college went to work on a oil drilling rig and makes more money than my son does.
There are still a lot of jobs that need guys who can think and work with tools. Fixing things and making things are good trades to go into for young people. For the last 3 decades high schools have been telling kids that the only way to make a good living was to go to college. In my opinion that was because the one giving the advise went to college and doesn't know anything else. That and colleges are a big business. The result has been lots of people with worthless college degrees and a shortage of young technical and skilled trade people.