Comments on: Higher education: luxury or imperative? A Catalyst for Prosperity Mon, 05 Oct 2015 22:04:28 +0000 hourly 1 By: Riley Mon, 14 May 2012 21:08:33 +0000 For all the talk, on both ends as well as along the political ideology continuum, about the “crisis” in higher education (usually framed as high costs and low unemployment for recent grads), there has been very little discussion as to what mean when they want a skilled or educated workforce. Most people claim that contemporary college graduates are unable to problem solve, reason, or express themselves (verbally or in writing) with any kind of coherence. Yet there is a massive backlash against the humanities, political sciences, and fine arts which generally place a premium on those types of skills. What do people want from their educations, and what do people want from a skilled workforce?

Secondly, employers need to clarify their statements about needing a skilled workforce. Do they want people who can walk in on the first day and do everything with minimal supervision, or are they willing to train people? Because most people, even with the “right” degrees (mostly STEM majors), need training. And if those younger college grads don’t need training in the actual skills required to do the work, they do need mentors. I’m wary of employers who want skilled labor but refuse to offer fair pay, reasonable benefits, and offer little job training, security, or leadership. Finally, I want employers to stop offering unpaid internships if they are only going to post employment ads that say they are seeking people with only “paid work experience.”

When placemaking discussions occur, most urbanists usually fall in line with Richard Florida’s creative class thesis, which in itself is a problematic if only for encouraging towns to gentrify (rather than helping those marginalized by institutionalized bias) and Florida’s refusal to comment on whether or not he is, in fact, encouraging a merge between urbanism and the culture industry. (See Martha Rosler’s three-part series in the online journal e-flux for more.)

All that being said, I agree that Michigan needs to start investing in higher education. I just don’t agree it should be to attract a “skilled workforce” and contribute to a bottom line of net profits but because education, intellectual curiosity, and a well-read population ultimately benefit everyone. It just comes down to what people want from an education and what they think an educated labor force will do, and what it actually does.