Not everyone should go to a traditional college

To be fair I am all for making quality education accessible to those who truly wish to go to university and take as much from the experience as possible. Yet some individuals only go to college because that’s what is expected of them and not because they truly want to be there. There are other alternatives to a traditional college that should be discussed as options for youth and adults.

1. Apprenticeships 2. Trade schools/career training
3. Community colleges 4. Online college and distance learning at universities
5. Work study colleges 6. Entrepreneurship and starting a business, etc.

Some might also say armed forces but I don’t think going into the armed forces is a good idea.

Any more ideas I failed to mention?

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SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

Continuous learning. Most of us require education throughout our lives in different formats according to our circumstances at the time. No one should be excluded from any route they may find useful just because of decisions they made earlier in their life. I think traditional universities/colleges should remain at the heart of everything to maintain standards and academic rigour, but beyond that the delivery of education should be shaped by demand.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@SunshineGirl Continuous learning.....

In my late-40s I think it was, I entered new employment as a laboratory assistant, and with a view to bettering myself in that I took GCSE Maths and Physics as an evening-class student, complete with taking the national exams at the end of the course.

I went on to try GCE Advanced Levels in both subjects but dropped the Physics as it became too much for me, and totally flunked the Maths exam, gaining "U" (for "Ungraded")!

I did not try again, but I do have some pretty certificates that say I "Successfully completed", work-related courses ranging from operating over-head cranes to learning Microsoft "Office" applications, first-aid to manual-handling. They don't say I have a "qualification" in them, only that I was successfully there!

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@ArishMell Combining academic study with employment is never easy at the best of times. I know there are now gentler ways of getting the learning you need than attempting two really difficult A-level subjects.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@SunshineGirl I had bitten off more than I can chew, there!

I discovered with the Maths that the fairly smooth progression from GCE Ordinary to Advanced Level had been lost, with the newer GSCE syllabus considerably stripped down in contents and severity, so making the A-level material new and considerably harder to learn than it should have been .

The GCSE course also included items like reading utility-meters (this was some years before "smart" meters") - we handled harder household-finance topics in junior school, like Compound Arithmetic!

I had chosen Maths and Physics because they were directly related to my work as a lab-assistant; but I learnt that work's principles and the fairly simple calculations I needed know there, not in college.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

No-one should take on something just because it's "expected".

Back in the 1990s rthe UK's Labour government under Anthony Wedgewood-Blair and Gordon Brown (their self-styled "New Labour") had a bee in its bonnet about wanting or "expecting" at least half of school-leavers to go to University, and bandied a meaningless cliche, knowledge economy, about to try to justify it.

Although the reports were probably exaggerated, all sorts of largely meretricious courses were concocted or encouraged - degrees in Leisure-Centre Management, Sociology and the like - but all that happened was a lot of young people having Degrees of little career use.

What the government failed to suggest, was life for all those 17-18 year olds who did not leave school with the required three General Certificate of Education "Advanced Level" examination passes in their chosen area, and trot off to university.

Meanwhile, trade apprenticeships declined, anything practical (apart from medicine) looked down upon; industries and public-utilities allowed to go into foreign ownership without thought....

The country has woken up to some extent, and all sorts of trades are now taking on apprentices. There was even a recent proposal to establish institutions called "Special Technical Colleges" or somehing similar.....

Err, we used to have them! Technical Colleges, that taught mainly practical skills and their vital backgound theoretical knowledge - e.g. Maths and Science - up to the "Higher National Certificate" qualification that approached Degree level. (Only Universities teach to Degrees and higher.) Their main use was in providing the backgound knowledge to apprentices, in a huge range of trades and industries.

So, no, no-one should necessarily go to university, and by no means everyone could anyway. By no means everyone can gain the entry qualifications or cope with three or four years of intense, high-level study- with only better rather then certain chance of a professional career afterwards.

So they do need the option of adult-education colleges that teach more vocationally, supporting all manner of trades and professions not needing a degree (or higher). They also offer courses in book-keeping for those wishing to enter administrative careers or run their own businesses.

(In the UK you can also study for a Degree through the "Open University" distant-learning scheme, and some adult-education colleges facilitate this physically for tutorials. Many OU students are older, laready with work and/or family commitments that make full-time residential university courses impracticable. The OU also has mature students studying their subject of pure interest to them, as a hobby.)

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@ArishMell The rigid and artificial division between universities and polytechnics was part of the problem in the perceived lower status of vocational courses. The distinction was actually abolished earlier in the 1990s by the Major ("classless society") government. These days a Healthcare Assistant at my wife's with no formal qualifications can obtain a nursing degree through our local further education college while still working and raising a family. That is a fantastic step forward (as is the recognition of the nursing qualification as a Level 6 degree).

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@SunshineGirl I'm not sure when the term "polytechnic" was introduced, apparently as some fancy new name for "Technical College", but the division between "academic" and "trade" runs quite deep and I think was social, not engendered by further-education institutions. They just found themselves in the middle.

It was a bad attitude though, and I agree entirely that skilled and highly-responsible work such as nursing should be respected properly; but so should any skilled occupation even if not needing deep theoretical knowledge.

I could never have obtained a Degree or equivalent, and managed only to fail an apprenticeship! However, I greatly respect - though rather envy - those who can succeed in either training route; which covers many of my friends and a few of my relations in a wide range of occupations.

496sbc · 36-40, M

remember i told u what my dad wanted me to do. college this and college that. well see now u have listed some great things.

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