A curious theme emerged during the first two nights of the Democratic National Convention: emphasis on the need to create well-paid careers for people who don’t obtain a bachelor’s degree.
“College shouldn’t be the only ticket to the middle class,” former President Obama proclaimed Tuesday. “We need to follow the lead of governors like Tim Walz who’ve said that if you’ve got the skills and the drive, you shouldn’t need a degree to work for state government.”
He was referring to an executive order that Walz signed in October 2023, shedding bachelor’s degree requirements for state government jobs that don’t really need one. (In fairness, it was former President Trump who started the ball rolling with a similar executive order for federal jobs in June 2020.)
On the first day of the convention, President Biden touted the CHIPS and Science Act, legislation that encourages investment in nanotechnology and clean energy, noting that companies are building massive new chip-making factories that provide well-paid jobs, “and you don’t need a college degree.”
The idea that not everyone wants or needs a college degree is having a political moment. After years of the “college for everyone” movement, it’s about time.
A July 2024 poll by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation found that most Americans question the value and cost of college. Only 36% said they had high levels of confidence in college, down from 57% in 2015. On average, one U.S. college is closing every week.
College does have value, and on average, college graduates earn significantly more than those with less education. But it’s not for everyone; people have different skills and talents to offer society that sometimes aren’t a good fit for the expectations of a classroom.
More than 30% of four-year college students don’t complete a degree within six years, which usually means they leave without a bachelor’s, having spent time and money with nothing to show for it. And more than 40% of bachelor’s holders are underemployed in jobs that didn’t really need a degree.
Convention speeches, of course, are long on pep and short on details. Now that Democrats have outlined this as a priority, it is time to start talking about the specifics of how the nation will get there. There are a few clear paths worth considering.
White-collar apprenticeships: The United States needs to pay more than lip service to the apprentice route for well-paid, white-collar jobs. To do this, it need look no further than Switzerland, where the bulk of students spend their last two years of high school attending classes part time, and training in paid, part-time apprenticeships in fields that generally require bachelor’s degrees here.
Think bank executives, hotel resort managers, human resources and marketing personnel, financial analysts and middle managers. They might need a year of additional training afterward, but then they enter well-paid careers, with no debt and money in the bank.
A program modeled on Switzerland’s has been started by a philanthropist in Denver, but it’s a small program and even with significant growth its reach is limited. In addition, the Chicago Apprentice Network, a consortium of corporations, has become an apprenticeship program for community college students.
These types of apprenticeship programs involve broad public-private partnerships that require structure, funding and a push from the U.S. Department of Education.
More help for community colleges and their students: Just because a bachelor’s degree isn’t required doesn’t mean that many students are ready for the job world after high school. Community colleges play the biggest role in preparing students for well-paid employment through both associate’s programs and short-term certificates that allow them to enter fields as diverse as video game design, avionics and shoeing horses. Close to 30% of people with a two-year associate’s degree earn more than the average bachelor’s holder.
These colleges deliver education at a low cost to students and taxpayers; they need more funding to give students the courses and financial help to learn skills for their chosen careers without having to work full time while they try to succeed in their classes.
Better training for school counselors: School counselors have been under intense pressure for the past 30 years to send more students to four-year colleges. As a result, most counselors don’t know enough about other paths for students who aren’t college-bound, beyond skilled trades and the military.
Both can be good options, but there are many more — entrepreneurialism, creative careers, service work, healthcare, travel and outdoors occupations are just some of them. They seldom know employers open to hiring people without a college degree, even though far more employers fall into that category.
All of these programs will cost taxpayers money, but it’s worth it. The funding will be returned several times over in the form of fewer student loan defaults and a more financially stable generation of young employees who don’t feel like failures because four years of coursework after high school wasn’t for them.
