I think the key element missing in education right now is awareness that the student needs to take responsibility for, and plan ahead to make themselves marketable. Too many people pick a field that looks fun, then fail to figure out how to get a job in their field until it’s too late to adjust course.

The English major needs to figure out how she’s going to use a BA to make money before her junior year, so she can tailor classes and internships to be well positioned for tech writing, editing, for-profit blogging, or whatever. The vo-tech student needs to figure out whether he can really get a job he’d be willing to do, for a wage he can live on, before starting the training. The engineer needs to get an internship or a good lab job to have more than a degree on his resume.

It happens that lib arts majors have to be more creative, and take more individual initiative to start up a career. It can work just fine, and they end up happier doing a job they’ll enjoy. The problem comes when the lib arts major ends up with a sociology degree because the classes were easier and more fun.

The other problem is that we’re asking 19 year olds to make those decisions without actually preparing them for the choice. If you don’t want your kids to come home unemployed after college, maybe you should start them thinking critically about careers before they finish high school. If they’re not ready at that time, maybe a couple years of CC or work will help them sort it out without $50k of student debt.