[Cleisthenes]

Using public education for any form of job training is one of the gravest mistakes that has put us in the current position.

The reason for public education is to have an informed citizenry able to participate fully in society. Using it as job training is just corporate welfare, that is using tax money to pay for something businesses should do themselves.

There is often overlap in the skills needed in an informed citizenry and employees (e.g. reading, computer skills, etc.), but not always.

Trying to chase what business or the marketplace wants is a fools journey that create citizens poorly prepared to be fully empowered citizens with a solid understanding of the world.

I suspect entrepreneurial skills would be well covered by this approach as it should emphasis skills of leadership, self-reliance, consensus, and creative thinking.

[hackuser]

Thanks for saying that; it's essential to reframe the discussion. A few thoughts:

1) The Obama administration's college rankings (I don't know if they are still around) at one point were using the earnings of graduates as a basis.

2) Often you hear people evaluating college based on their first job. Not only are employment skills not the goal, as you point out, but consider the absurdity of valuing education based on what is probably the least important, worst paying job you'll ever get, with a payoff of probably 1-2 years.

3) Looking at the shocking political and environmental problems in 'advanced' countries right now, perhaps more education in the non-vocational fields of liberal arts, including history, political science, and literary criticism, and in the sciences, providing an understanding of nature and scientific method, is more important than ever.

4) A useful way of looking at it: [0]

"The Yale Report of 1828" -- an influential document written by Jeremiah Day (who was at the time president of Yale), one of his trustees, and a committee of faculty -- distinguished between "the discipline" and "the furniture" of the mind. Mastering a specific body of knowledge -- acquiring "the furniture" -- is of little permanent value in a rapidly changing world. Students who aspire to be leaders in business. medicine, law, government, or academia need "the discipline" of mind -- the ability to adapt to constantly changing circumstances, confront new facts, and find creative ways to solve problems.

I'd add that it's not just leaders, but everyone who needs these skills.

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[0] Richard C. Levin, President of Yale, in "Top of the Class: The Rise of Asia's Universities"

https://www.foreignaffairs.org/articles/china/2010-05-01/top...

[snomad]

At one point, we had more trade schools. Somehow they fell out of fashion as the 70s became the 90s. Perhaps we should bring back publicly funded trade schools (including IT!), and allow universities to morph back into pure education.