College Grad Can't Find Job; Sues School

good point

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
Good quote and point!!!!!

 

While I'm not sure she deserves her money back, I agree with her that most "placement" offered by colleges is a joke. I've seen many, many colleges that effectively say "we will make sure you get a job through one of our partners" and then do almost-nothing to help you. If the college is drawing in students with false promises, then they need to be held responsible for that.

But it's only been six months. My biggest issue with her is that she expects to have a job right now. Even if we weren't in "this economy" with employment ratios like they are, it's silly to expect to have a job immediately after graduation.

 

Also, the article mentioned that she had an IT degree, but I'll bet anything that she has no IT certs.

 

And what is a holy t-shirt? One blessed by God or a clergyperson?

 

Now that's funny! : )

 

This case is a bit over the top, we all know that education qualifications are just one of the many tools to get through to the interview stage, few schools if any can seriously promise job security without any additional requirement nowadays.

 

Full Sail, a Florida based NA trade-college for media and arts (3d animation, Design, Web, etc...) does have a similar deal: after graduating you can retake ANY class ANY time.

Actually is a very good deal, because that's an area where you have to be always up-to-date in terms of technical knowledge.

 

Well, in this era of entitlement mentality, I suppose we should be thankful that the student didn't have a nervous breakdown and come back and shoot up the school.

 

ProfTim: ".... Young men and women, with tattoos everywhere, more rings and studs in the ears, nose, tongue and who knows where else. These students don't stand a chance in a lot of work settings..."

John: A lot of work settings, to be sure. However. . . during the years my eldest daughter was the U.S. publisher for the large Lonely Planet Guidebooks company (150 staff in Oakland, CA), she had quite a large number of the above personal accoutrements. But then so, apparently, did the company owners based in Australia. The only key issue seemed to be whether the nose ring was connected to the ear ring with a gold chain, or not. (In her current position, executive editor for an even larger Swedish publisher, with a San Francisco branch, the dress code is quite conservative, and thankfully, the tattoos are coverable.)

Trivia challenge: of those 150 employees at Lonely Planet, one job category had more employees than all the others. What would that category be? (Nothing to do with writing, editing, designing, illustrating, photography, proof reading, or indexing.)

 

I do wish to address the topic directly and will make a claim if there was no need for such schools to begin with they wouldn't exist.

John Bear pointed this out in his books people get degree mill degrees for the document sometimes because they need a "degree" and I would say these people may not be able to earn one. Not everyone learns with books many learn on-the-job and have natural aptitudes that are not academic ones.

The same can be said for for profit schools in my state of Florida there is a critical nursing shortage. Not enough accredited schools you would approve of have enough seats so for profit schools provide that education, or at least try to. If say Saint Petersbrg College offered more seats fewer students may go to these schools but they are not meeting the need or schools that are RA like SPC.

So why blame the schools they are there due to the not for profits not meeting the needs in the marketplaces for the degrees and training in that order. In my mind too many employers are demanding degrees far higher than is necessary when apprenticeships or learning on-the-job or a decent two year degree would suffice.

 

..there has definitely been a shift in attitude; 15 years ago I obtained a job because I had hands on experience in unix (a lot of it)..that is highly unlikely nowadays where too much emphasis is placed on having a degree.

15 years ago, if you had a Bachelors people nearly were in awe.. nowadays multiple bachelors / masters are not uncommon..and then the dilemma is one of a Bachelor not being enough, and a Masters being too much.... goes back to the old "You need experience and education, but we won't hire you to give you the experience even though you have the education."

I don't for one minute believe that the student in the article has common sense, the job market being what it is, you at best increase your chances of obtaining employment with a degree, but by no means is it a guarantee. There are many threads on this site pertaining to the technical side of education (general IT) and most often it is suggested and recommended to supplement a degree with vendor certificates which generally provide some proof of experience.

Perhaps, instead of complaining, she has to broaden her horizons and move away from mother-dearest to find a job - relocating for employment is by no means uncommon, though often unwanted (often enough people are the authors of their own demise)... whatever happened of taking ownership?

 

Yeah i must say , the article was really informative and i had a great time reading this forum ..

 

This begs the question for me what do we do with the bottom 40% percentile of each school grade in performance. These people will never likely do well in even a community college for an associates degree and you can forget a bachelors degree or higher.

I tend to be a pragmatist the society has to education and have reasonable expectations for each child. Someone underperforming in English and Mathematics from grade school regardless of efforts has to be educated and work right out of High School. Its oddly not people like you here I'm worried about its people in my end. I can't think about doing college level mathematics at the level to earn a degree except at the school I'm at. I could never think about a Business Administration degree the best route for accounting and high end work such as being a CPA. So what about people like me where do we fit in?

Not to mention people like Marc on the ROSANNE tv show he was horrible at learning with classroom work but was very good with hands-on learning. I know people like him in schools now thanks to the FCAT are being marginalized, most don't earn a diploma proper and have few opportunities. They never had trade education which is vital or a job market that would offer these people a factory job like in the 1950's. Now these low performers in math and english have nothing meaningful to do. And worse they may have strengths not tested for but matter more to a career social skills, mechanical aptitudes or the like.

I think again this is a systemic propblem the society is leaving a large number of people behind who could be productive if they learned on the job or in good trade educations in High School. If employers had realistic standards for their needs and if parents accepted the fact not all children are the same. A romanitic and dangerous idea the educators seem to look for and its not true.

The student who went to this school is part of the results of this systemic illness of neutral conformity to a standard that some young people and adults can't meet.

 

The oldest cathedral in Germany is in the City of Trier. And:

"The most precious relic in Trier Cathedral is the Holy Robe, the tunic of Christ."

Consider the Cathedral's picture of the Holy Robe. Would it be unfair and irreverant to suggest that it also could be described as a Holy T-shirt ?

 

I couldn't agree with you more! Please bring trades back to mainstream education. There is a reason Europe still uses that system. After middle school you either go the trades route or college route.

I live in Florida too. There is nothing wrong with being an air conditioning repairperson! This is Florida, you will always have a job! One of the reasons I left high school was because I couldn't deal with hyprocracy. Every child can learn, but not in the same way. There just aren't schools out there for students who aren't overachievers in the traditional curriculum.

One of the most repulsive practices for the tech schools, is that they allow students to enroll in Tech Ed in their Junior and Senior year ONLY if they have passed the FCAT. Now tell me, if they passed the FCAT, do they really, really need tech ed? Probably not. Students who are struggling with passing these miserable standardized tests need another way to show they are successful. I've never seen so many young people graduate and can do nothing.

I was one of them. It took me a long time to realize I went to high school and college and was trained to do NOTHING. I moved to a state that is trade oriented, and all I had was liberal arts to my name. This would be sufficient in the North or the West, but not in Florida. However, I liked school and excelled without much effort and continued to learn and got a trade (teaching) and now I can do SOMETHING!

 

That is insane and no one is saying trades education has to be poor but say a young person leaves high school a culinary arts diploma and is a certified working chef by the national trade organization he has a profession. If they leave trained in accounting most could go right into entry level accounting and I would broaden that to include related office trades. If they leave an air conditioning tech or certified tech for power scooters and chairs they can get work. Even training in barbering or electoronics assembly or service work could be valuable. Don't we need good customer service workers, cashiers, food servers and hospitality workers also that is honest work. Not everyone and if fact most people should not seek a bachelors degree so that leaves a great need for this training.

But this is not going to work without children, parents, schools and business working together.