Mike Rowe, CEO of Mike Rowe Works Foundation, believes that a PR problem is emerging for traditional four-year degrees, as their value is diminishing.
He pointed out a decline in confidence in universities and expressed concerns about the meaning and value of a college education.
Rowe also discussed the changing perception of college-educated individuals and the potential need for a significant shift in higher education.
“Back in the mid-’60s, higher-ed needed a PR campaign, a good one, and it got one. Unfortunately, it came at the expense of every other form of education. And then we wound up with a skills gap and no shop class and so forth and so on,” Rowe said.
“I think something really extraordinary happened during the lockdowns.”
“Everybody’s getting a trophy” he said of students today.
“If I’m an employer hiring a Harvard grad, I honestly have no idea who I’m hiring. It could be a disciplined, hardworking, smart, industrious, self-starter. Or it could be the son of the son of a legacy who coasted through the whole thing,” he said.
“Ten years ago, if you said, ‘Hey, I’ve got the support of the college-educated behind me,’ I think the average person would immediately go, ‘Okay, so the smart people are with you’ — but something’s happened,” Rowe said.
“Honestly, I’m not sure what it means to say, ‘Hey, I’ve got the support of the college-educated,’ because I can’t find any evidence to indicate that that means you have the support of wise, prudent, thoughtful people,” he added.
“The worm is turning, guys,” he said.
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