Education v. Experience

How Much Education is Enough?

The articles that we read for this week about social mobility made me think about my own family’s mobility and how it has affected my perception of class and status. Egan’s article about the two factory workers that were laid off and were without college degrees has stark similarities to what is going on now. Many people are finding themselves out of work and don’t have college degrees to fall back on. More and more, people are finding themselves becoming entangled in the cycle that lack of education and job availability leads to. Although I have had an extremely difficult time finding a job for when I graduate in May, I know that I am in a better position to succeed than others. It makes me wonder just how valuable my degree will be ten years down the road.

Like many blue-collar employees, both McClellan and Martinelli forewent going to college and instead chose to work in the Kaiser Aluminum factory. At the time, there was not the big of a disparity in wages between those that had degrees and those did not. As McClellan and Martinelli both explained, working in the factory placed them comfortably in the middle to upper middle class. Now that they have been laid off, they are struggling not only to maintain their status but also to make ends meet.

This story has become a familiar one especially in the last months. In towns where the automobile plants provided a huge source of jobs, many are left unemployed as business has slowed if not come to a screeching halt. They are left to choose between taking jobs that pay less than what they were receiving or taking a chance on going back to school to get the degrees they need. This is an especially hard decision when unemployment assistance is maxed out and bills are mounting.

I have not been able to get a full time job thus far because I don’t have a lot of relevant work experience, but I will have a college degree. I can’t help but worry that my bachelor’s degree might put me in a similar position to McClellan and Martinelli in a few years. Whose responsibility is it to make sure that people have the opportunity to develop the skills that they need to maintain their occupational status as the times change? Is it up to the individual to try to get as much education as possible to fall back on? Or is it the responsibility of employers to plan ahead and predict changes to the way they do business that will affect the lives of many?