During my discussion with a fresh out of college engineer to proceed with a Masters in engineering, he asked me how does the masters degree currently benefit in terms of Job and salary.
Is the time spent in school and extra college year, only to buy Food, House, car, luxury, diseases and inevitable death.? If this is the case, then we teachers are just traders and businessmen.
This might seem a non problematic shift, but the Professor George D Kuh of Indiana University, predicts that it is dangerous shift for coming generations.
Below are some reflections from Professor George's article written in Harvard Business Review.
One of the dominant narratives in the media is that 'we need to produce more workers now who can do whatever is needed now'. If this is the case, then who will build the future.
To clarify my thoughts, I gonna quote the below words:
"Many business leaders say that they prefer candidates who not only can do today’s work, but who will be able to continue to learn on their own in real time to do tomorrow’s work — jobs that have not yet been invented. Is there a badge or certificate to certify skills for jobs that haven’t even been invented yet?!"
We all agree that there are no short cuts for cultivating the habits of the mind and heart that, over time, enable people to deepen their learning, develop skills to come out of problems, transfer information into action, create things creatively and evaluate competing ideas and approaches.
Workplaces, societal institutions, and the world order are only going to get more complicated and challenging to navigate and manage, increasing the need for people with accumulated wisdom, interpersonal and practical competence, and more than a splash of critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and altruism.
What the educational research shows matters to preparing people for a self-sufficient, civically responsible, and personally satisfying life.
To conclude the reflection on thoughts of Professor George,
Not getting into Higher degrees, postsecondary preparation programs may reduce short-term costs for students, institutions, and many employers. However, it is bad idea for long time to come, if we are focusing on short-term job training over demanding educational experiences associated with high-levels of intellectual, personal, and social development — a foundation for continuous life-long learning.
— it is beneficial to put more and more students to focus on getting deep domain expertise. Focus on getting masters degree in respective interest area, and also PhD.
Click to read the full article from source:
https://hbr.org/2019/10/why-skills-training-cant-replace-higher-education?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hbr&utm_source=facebook