Not Going to College?

When I was just five years old, my parents told me that I will be going to college and every year, they repeat it a couple times. When I was in high school, my friends asked me what I was going to do after I graduated and I said, "College".

I felt it was just a necessary step into adulthood. College seemed like another school after high school. But as an undergraduate student, I saw more people not going to college right away or taking a gap year. I started wondering about it. What do you do if you don't go to college? The answer my parents gave me was: flip burgers at McDonalds or college.

Now I'm a graduate student and college seems to be the right answer for me. My cousin seemed to take the no college route. He did apply to college and he took some classes, but now that he thinks that he can make some fast money through a business, he dropped out of school.

This book seemed to help him go back to school. It gave him a fresh view about life. Sure, he can try and make a business, but first he needs some skills.

Today, unemployment hovers at a near-record high, yet 3.5 million American jobs remain unfilled. Why? Because companies simply cannot find people with the skills they actually need.

The good news is that this skills gap represents unprecedented opportunities for every person seeking a successful and exciting career. But these opportunities can’t be found inside the walls of the traditional classroom. Instead, they lie in the myriad educational options that provide the technical, vocational, and soft skills on demand in today’s workplace, such as:

-Professional certifications

-Associates degrees

-Apprenticeships

-Occupational learning