Education for a New Tomorrow

The world of education is changing. The old system of two basic choices - trade school or traditional university - is crumbling and being replaced by a more complex system with more choices. No one knows this better than Cisco online training. Let's take a moment to understand these changes and their implications for those pondering their educational decisions.

The Past

The old system, the one that is familiar to most, had graduating high school seniors choosing between two basic education routes. One route took them to a trade school, where they were educated in a set of skills that qualified them for a specific set of jobs. The second route took them to a four-year university, where they received a general education. These two routes - trade and university - were disparate in many ways. Trade school educations were endlessly disparaged. Students who chose trade schools were considered to not be smart enough for "real" universities. Their job choices and lifetime earning potential were limited. However, trade school educations were significantly less expensive than university educations and consistently had higher graduation and employment rates as well.  

At the other end of the spectrum were university educations. Students choosing university educations could expect to spend significant amounts of money. And, while their lifetime earning potential was greater than trade school, so was their starting debt. A university education also took longer: four years for a bachelor's degree versus two for a standard trade school. All that said, university degrees were still the preferred route, as earning potential and prestige were significantly higher and considered worth the cost in time and money.

The Present

The old system is breaking down for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, the job market in the United States is experiencing a significant shift. Manufacturing jobs are quickly being lost and sent overseas. This has caused a change in the nature and quantity of available trade school opportunities. Technical schools are on the rise, offering training programs in all things related to computers and programming. The growing healthcare industry has also led to growth in trade schools offering training in the medical and dental fields. Service-related businesses are booming, so finding a trade school to learn esthetics or cosmetology is easier than ever before.

Second, the old stigma associated with trade schools is slowly disappearing. This is especially apparent in the tech industry, where industry leaders are now not only willing, but anxious to hire graduates from technical colleges. And, because the tech industry changes so rapidly, adults further along in their careers find themselves attending technical colleges to "refresh" their skills. The other side of this coin is that the prestige of a university degree has declined. A university degree no longer guarantees graduates good jobs.

Third, the number of institutions offering online educations has boomed. The ability to get an education online is changing how we view education. The pattern of high school followed by trade school or university and then career is now less distinct. Educational opportunities are available at any stage of life to anyone with access to a computer. 

And finally, underpinning all the changes described above, is the fact that the cost of a university education has increased exponentially. Couple the decreased demand for university education with the astronomical increase in cost and you can see that higher education institutions are facing a very real problem.

The Future

The future of higher education will look significantly different from the past. It is uncertain how all these changes will eventually shake out, but one thing is certain: more choice is better for the education consumer. Organizations and opportunities like Cisco online training are poised and ready to help education consumers make sense of their many options and choose the path that will help them achieve their goals.

Source : articlesbase.com