Maybe your kid shouldn’t go to college after all

Yes, you heard me right. As graduation season kicks into high gear for 2018, maybe your child would be better off not getting that four year degree in college.

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The prevailing wisdom for decades in the United States has been that a college education is the holy grail. You must attend college at all costs. It is the golden ticket. There are all kinds of studies that say the average person will earn a million more dollars with a college degree over a lifetime. We’ve all heard the stats.

However, there is another side to this argument. Not every high school graduate is college material. Some kids should take a gap year and go experience something on their own. Some grads would be better suited to work in the trades where it’s your actual skills that count and having a degree just isn’t necessary.

A recent NPR study declared that “Some 30 million jobs in the United States that pay an average of $55,000 per year don’t require bachelor’s degrees.”

I don’t know about you, but that’s not a bad place to start right out of high school in my opinion.

There is now a shortage of tradespeople in the United States. Especially in the Puget Sound region. You see all those cranes? They ain’t operating themselves.

If you’ve recently had to hire anyone in the construction business, then you already know a livable wage is within reach. Plumbers, electricians, painters, framers, heavy machine operators and a dozen other categories are all booked up for months in advance.

Then of course there’s the entrepreneur’s hustle model. Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel gives out $100,000 fellowships for kids to not go to school. Instead, the young people are encouraged to spend two years developing real world business ideas. At the end of the two years, some choose to jump back into college, but many are off and running on their first start up.

I’m not saying that college isn’t a good idea. It’s fun to watch the journey of young people that get accepted to the university of their dreams and head off to embrace the college experience. It’s just not for everybody.

At least look at your options. The work world has changed dramatically in the last few decades.