When was the last time you read about someone from your local school district tour an industrial facility? When was the last time a local school official, such as a school board member, a principal, or a superintendent visited your plant or facility? When was the last time that one of these officials reached out to your company in an attempt to understand what skills your company’s employees need to be successful? If your answer is “a long time”, then how can they produce a graduate that is “employable”?
Let’s put this in a different context. What if a company decided to make a new product? They do not do a marketing study, they don’t determine their cost to produce, the cost the product can be sold for, or even if customers want the product? When it is finally ready to sell, they find that no one wants to purchase it, or even when a few people do purchase it, they use it for a purpose the company had not intended.
This, in a sense, is what has happened to our educational system. We have an educational system that is producing a product that is based on its perception of what the market needs. They do not have to sell their product to the marketplace. In fact, they can over-produce and leave the excess product sit in a warehouse (unemployment lines). Even if they can sell the product, it is not used for its designed purpose, as evidenced by the number of people who are working in fields outside their degrees (or behind the counter at a fast-food restaurant). Considering that the average student will have over $100,000.00 invested in their education by the time they leave high school, how long will it take to pay off this amount and provide some return on investment?
What positive changes would be made if the educational system had to actually sell (and warranty) their product? What if they had to produce a product that the marketplace (employers) actually wanted? What if they were paid, not on solely on tax revenue, but a percentage from employers actually buying (hiring) their final product? A type of finder’s fee for highly qualified employees. You would wonder if the quality of the final product would also increase under that system.
If the educational system continues to produce graduates that are unemployable in today’s world-wide competitive marketplace, then companies will have to start importing products (graduates) from other countries that meet their needs. Wait a minute – are we not doing this already?
Recent Comments