Friday, April 28, 2017

The Economics of Skills

As graduation approaches, I let some of my seniors in on a little secret. As a high school educator, I didn’t adequately prepare my students for the workforce. I don’t feel too bad about myself for that though. I don’t think I was supposed to.
I don’t believe the American educational system is designed in a way that charges high schools with providing most students with the skills they need to be competitive in the workforce. The keyword there is competitive and there are economics tied to this. In my view, the role of a high school education is to provide the foundation upon which employable skills are built. Those skills are what separate us, gives us specificity, and puts us in a position where we can command more pay for what we do because not everyone can do what we do as well as we do it. That’s a little wordy. What I mean is, we pay brain surgeons a lot because when you need a brain surgeon, you really need a brain surgeon, and there are few people who have the education and skills to pull off brain surgery. The person who scoops mashed potatoes onto plates in the cafeteria at that same hospital? Well, there is not much skill involved in mashed potato scooping so there are a lot of people who can do it. Their pay is low. Supply and demand.
High schools don’t teach a lot of skills that are in demand. Yes, a lot of schools have some vocational programs or courses that can lead to some industry certifications. However, if high schools are teaching it, there are a lot of people learning how to do it so that affects your supply. I think high school vocational programs are better than nothing and can provide high school graduates some skills right off the bat, but I think high school vocation can best be utilized when it is used by a student as a slingshot to accelerate the acquisition of skills in a given vocation at the post-secondary level.
Again what is most valuable from high school is that it builds the foundation. High schools teach students how to read, how to do math, and provides the general knowledge basis that students will need to learn their employability skills. For example, I’m not an economist, but I took economics in high school. Without that course, I couldn’t compose this writing, as a guidance counselor, about the economics of skills. I learned what I know about being a guidance counselor from college and my work experience. However, my high school education is really important to me because it provides all the general knowledge I use for all the little pieces I pull into my role as a counselor. Nevertheless, despite their incredible value to me, I don’t think anyone would pay me very much to put all those little pieces of knowledge to work by themselves. It is the skillset I built on top of those that I am really paid for.

So, my point here is that high school graduates should feel accomplished and they should value their high school education. But, they shouldn’t rest on those laurels or think they are done with their education. They really need to get out there and go acquire some special skills that not everyone else has. That’s how they are going to make themselves competitive in the workforce and produce a livable wage.