That’s the headline on a blog entry at Phi Beta Cons by George Leef, director of the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in North Carolina. In his post, he directs our attention to an article about high-achieving students in England who choose jobs in manufacturing over university.

From “College Oversold, but Some Aren’t Buying“:

The Guardian published a fascinating piece on April 12 entitled “High-achieving students sailing through life without a degree.” The writer interviewed several excellent students who have gone straight into the workforce and are doing well without a college degree. Jamie Ponting, for example, at 19 decided against a university education (and 30,000 pounds of debt) to go to work full time for a firm where he had done a summer internship.

Another student, Katy Pascoe, went to work for a firm that builds yachts. Katy thinks she has excellent prospects with the firm if she successfully completes her internship, which for the first year included classroom learning. There’s a strong motivation!

The article also mentions a survey of university students showing that two-thirds do not believe they will find work relating to their degree, and a fourth saying that they think they’d have been better off with an apprenticeship or on-the-job training.

Would young people like those be any more productive if they had first spent years and lots of money to earn a college degree? I don’t think that case can be made.

George Leef, an education policy expert of the Pope Center in North Carolina, reports on a recent debate on the value of a four-year college degree, the question being: ” Does the United States need more college graduates to remain a world economic power?”

Former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and Dr. Michael Lomax, president of the United Negro College Fund, argued in favor of the resolution. Ohio University economics professor Richard Vedder and Leef argued against it. Their first two points:

First, we showed that a college degree does not necessarily open up good opportunities for individuals because degrees are now so common that having one is no distinction. Furthermore, there are other ways besides going to college for young people to get on a career path—vocational training, for example.

Second, we argued that it would not benefit our economic productivity to devote resources to college for additional students. Since we already have a surplus of college graduates in the labor force, expanding higher education further would only divert resources from more beneficial uses.

The National Association of Manufacturers does not denigrate four year college degrees, but believes there are other approaches that, depending on the student, offer more rewarding education and career opportunities.