The College & Career Connection

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Let's begin with the definition of college from Lexico powered by Oxford:

"An educational institution or establishment, in particular one providing higher education or specialized professional or vocational training."

The purpose of college - whether a community college, vocational college, or 4-year college - is to learn.

In fact, according to the Pew Research article by Russell Heimlich, Purpose of College Education, nearly half of those asked said that the main reason to attend college was to learn a work-related skill. Many also believed that college provides a chance for students to "grow personally and intellectually."

So, we can glean that the main purposes of college are to:

• learn, particularly a work-related skill
• mature, or grow as a person

Take a moment to read more about the dual purposes of college in What's The Purpose Of College? by Brandon Busteed for Forbes.

• Now that you understand the basic purposes of college, let's connect college to career.

College can provide you with the training, knowledge, and skills you will need to pursue and obtain a career in your chosen field. Obviously, the ability to obtain a position in your chosen career is a huge benefit, but college offers other benefits as well. Some of those benefits include increased job satisfaction, higher salaries, and better health. Check out Salary, Health and Happiness: The Benefits of a College Degree from SNHU to discover even more benefits:

College (community college, vocational college, or any other type of post-secondary education) is still very important in our society, despite recent arguments against the value and necessity of college. According to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, 65% of all available jobs will require some form of post-secondary education by the year 2020. Wow! That's quite a high percentage.

Now, let's think about the value and benefit of training, post-secondary education, and college from a practical standpoint.

Think about physicians, surgeons, engineers, pilots, welders, or almost any other professional that you might interact with on a daily basis.

• What would it be like if they didn't have any training in their fields?

Yikes!

• Would bridges still stand?
• Would we receive quality health care?
• Would planes still fly properly?

Probably not!

College and career are connected because college prepares learners for a specific career. College also helps to prepare learners for professional success. In college, future physicians learn the basics of biology, welders learn important aspects of physics, pilots learn how to fly planes, and so on. So, when you choose a major in college or decide to attend a vocational college, it is important to make the college-career connection and choose a major or degree program that will provide you with the essential skills and knowledge you need to obtain a position in your chosen career field.

Let's move on to the Got It? section to test your knowledge of the college-career connection.