Myth: American graduates don't have the skills needed for a
high-tech economy.
Fact: Americans are generally overqualified for the jobs available.
Summary
America's problem is not that it has too few educated workers,
but that it has too many. Over 20 percent of all college graduates
are either unemployed or hold jobs that do not require a college
degree. Competition to get into graduate school has reached a
fever pitch, and American universities produce 25 percent too
many doctorates than the economy can use. At the college level,
the U.S. is the most highly educated country in the world. At
the primary and secondary level, the U.S. has a mixed record on
education, but with a lower high-school dropout rate than most
other nations. Unlike other countries, the U.S. does not have
an extensive apprenticeship program to train workers who have
no more than a high school education.
Argument
Many critics of American public education argue that too many
students are graduating without the skills needed for a high-tech
economy. Employers tell anecdotal horror stories about job applicants
who cannot read or write or perform their jobs adequately. Fortunately,
these criticisms describe the exceptions, not the rule. (1)
In fact, there is a glut of college graduates on the labor market.
In 1993, one third of all 1991 and 1992 college graduates held
jobs that did not require a college degree. (2) As for all
college graduates, in 1990, 20 percent either held jobs that did
not require a college degree or were unemployed. That was up from
18 percent in 1979 and 11 percent in 1968.
The glut is so serious that competition among college students
to enter graduate school has reached a fever pitch. In 1996, for
example, 46,968 students competed for 16,200 openings in medical
schools across the country. (3) At law schools, 70,900 students
applied for 43,000 openings. (4) Similar gluts exist in virtually
all fields. Even the lucky few who graduate with doctorates find
themselves competing for too few jobs that require their degrees.
According to a 1995 study by Stanford University and the Rand
Corporation, universities turn out "25 percent more doctorates
in science and engineering than the U.S. economy can absorb."
(5)
With too many overqualified workers at the top, a displacement
effect runs down the entire job ladder. The best high school graduates
who seek non-professional jobs find themselves competing with
college graduates. These competent high school graduates are then
bumped down, to compete for even lower jobs.
What this means is that the vast majority of American workers
have more than enough fundamental education to perform their jobs.
In 1989, a survey called "The Commission on the Skills of
the American Workforce" questioned American employers on
the education of their workers. The researchers found that over
80 percent of American employers were satisfied with the education
of their newly hired employees. Only 5 percent expected that their
employees would require further basic training or education.
International comparisons
And how does American education stack up against that of other
nations? At the college level, the U.S. is the most highly educated
society in the world. At the elementary and high school level,
the U.S. has a mixed record.
Educational attainment of persons aged 25 to 64 years old, percent by country, 1992 (6) Primary Secondary College Country Only Also Also --------------------------------------------- United States 16% 53 24 Netherlands 42 37 21 Canada 29 30 15 Denmark 41 40 13 Germany 18 60 12 Norway 21 54 12 Sweden 30 46 12 United Kingdom 32 49 11 Finland 39 43 10 France 48 36 10 Switzerland 19 60 8 Italy 72 22 6
Adding the figures in the first two columns shows how well each
nation educates its non-college workforce. For example, the U.S.
gives 69 percent of its society either an elementary or high school
education, although in Italy it's 94 percent, France, 84 percent,
etc. On the other hand, the U.S. also sees more of its students
through high school than most other countries, which have unusually
high dropout rates even in elementary school. So, on the whole,
the U.S. produces more highly educated workers than any other
nation.
Meeting the requirements of the workplace
Another criticism is that the public education system isn't
teaching students the skills that will be required in our rapidly
changing high-tech economy. Apple Computer Chairman John Sculley
once complained to President Clinton that
"We're still trapped in a K-12 public education system which
is preparing our young people for jobs that just don't exist anymore."
But this criticism doesn't hold water. With relatively minor spending
increases, educators have been able to add enough computers to
elementary school classrooms that 54 percent of all students now
use them. At present, this is an even greater percentage than
those who use computers on the job.
The U.S. does, however, fail to train its future workers in a
way that most other prosperous nations do not. Other nations have
extensive apprenticeship programs for workers who do not go on
to college. The success of these publicly funded programs is considerable,
and many foreign entrepreneurs have scratched their heads over
why the U.S. has not adopted them.
The problem is this: lower education is general education, teaching
the fundamentals that are universally needed by all citizens,
regardless of their future jobs. But at the higher levels, education
becomes increasingly specialized. In the U.S., true specialization
in a particular job field does not really occur until college.
Yet, roughly four-fifths of all Americans do not attend college,
even though they will be choosing job specialties as well, and
have just as much need for specialized training. Other nations
solve this problem through apprenticeship programs. By contrast,
blue-collar workers in the U.S. must struggle through on-the-job
training.
On-the-job training has many serious drawbacks. First, simply
knowing a job is insufficient for a manager to train someone else
in it. Training and educating others efficiently, easily and completely
is a high skill, one that the majority of managers fail to master.
Not surprisingly, most do it poorly. The advantages of a formal
apprenticeship program is that it can be designed and taught by
experts.
Second, on-the-job training works well for simple jobs, but in
an increasingly high-tech world, it may become too lengthy and
expensive for companies to accept. In that case, businessmen and
educators often engage in a lot of finger-pointing, trying to
blame each other for the workers' lack of skills. Educators blame
businessmen for not supporting apprenticeship programs, and businessmen
blame educators for inadequate primary and secondary education.
The latter charge is fallacious, however, because elementary and
high school are for general education, not specialized education.
Many companies are learning the value of privately funded apprenticeship
programs. Here is a success story reported in The American
Prospect: