New survey data from the nonprofit American Student Assistance shows that teen interest in college is down while interest in nondegree paths is on the rise.

Meanwhile, parents are skeptical of options outside the traditional college pathway to work.

Nearly half of all students surveyed – 45% – weren't interested in going to college. About 14% said they planned to attend trade or technical schools, apprenticeships and technical boot camp programs, and 38% were considering those options.

66% of teens surveyed said parents supported their plans to pursue a nondegree route, compared with 82% whose parents encouraged them to attend college.

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[–] 121 points 1 year ago (15 children)

Boomers set up this world where only a college degree mattered, then they tore that world down.

Do whatever you want, kids. We're all totally F'ed anyhow.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    considering how bad the tech job market is right now? Completely worthless.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Is it really? Also I've had a tech job for 20 years and my degree is not in the field. I didn't need a degree. Many of my colleagues are self-taught developers. I didn't know that tech jobs were so hard to come by now.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    The data I've seen is that it's mainly bad on the entry level

    https://www.newsweek.com/computer-science-popular-college-major-has-one-highest-unemployment-rates-2076514

    But this is focused on comparing college degree outcomes in entry level rather than degree + non-degree. Also the longer term studies that consider career outcomes degree vs trade vs non-degree/trade certifications long term regardless of career path

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    I've been job hunting for almost 2 full years now, can barely get interviews. I put out 30-50 app's a week.

    9 years IT experience between helpdesk, field work, desktop support, and cyber security.

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  • [+] -13 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    I don't think boomers set it up that way. I think boomers were the first to grow up into a world where a college degree was almost required to get ahead.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    No they werent. They could buy houses with a min wage job. Dont speak on things you know absolutely nothing about.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    You could, but it would be a house with no indoor plumbing. My grandpa lived in one. Gotta shit in the outhouse.

    Houses got much bigger since then and the home ownership rate stayed at around 60% basically forever. If it was so easy, why didn't everyone do it?

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  • [–] -4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    I never said that boomers did not benefit from it, I said that they didn't set it up that way. They benefited, exploited, abused, and left nothing for those to come after, but they didn't set it up themselves.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    So when boomers came into the workforce they did not need college degrees to get ahead. After they had gotten ahead and were in charge, new employees started needing college degrees to get ahead.

    And you think they didn't set it up themselves? If they didn't, who did?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    After they had gotten ahead and were in charge

    Chiming in that I do agree with this specific sentiment. I think the issue with your overall statement is that it seems to imply that all boomers did this, while it only applies to the ones that got ahead. The system we've been living in for ages has been creating and rewarding cutthroat psychopathic/sociopathic tendencies - so it absolutely makes sense that the people that rose up in the economic ladder abused their position accordingly.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago

    I'm all for hating the boomers. If you want to blame the disappearance of American manufacturing and the weakening of organized labor on Boomers, I'm all for that. They availability of higher education for the masses to the point where a college degree became a barrier to entry is something that came about thanks to the prosperity boom after WWII. Remember yuppies? Those fuckers were boomers enjoying the advantages their parents and socialist reforms laid at their feet.

    So no. Boomers didn't make college a barrier to entry, but they did milk their good fortune and left very little for those that came after them.

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