151–160 of 247 posts
I don't know why more tech companies don't do apprenticeships straight out of highschool. You can pay a high school student with some programming experience a fraction of the salary of a college graduate and it probably doesn't take that much longer to get them productive and they won't be saddled with student loan debt.
An entire article about the future of education and not a single paragraph about automation. How are trade schools preparing students to reinvent themselves every 10 years or less? How is vocational education setting the expectation that those students will have not one career for the rest of their lives, but many? This is not to say that liberal arts colleges are much better; but, at least with 4 year degrees, the e…
Will trade jobs be automated? Plumbers, HVAC, Welders are jobs that seem to be the least likely to be automated..
Not dismissing it I just wonder what the "hard for machines" aspect is that I'm missing.
I know there are plenty of robotic welders out there and that progress implies they'll either expand more into "humans can't do that" territory and possibly become cheaper over time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd argue that expansive view should be coming way, way earlier than high school. How about before you beat the curiosity and sense of wonder out of 5-8 year olds with times tables, memorizing the dates presidents were born, and repeating the word "prepositional phrase" a thousand times - that would be a good time to start.
Should parents have no responsibility in this regard? It isn’t the elementary school’s child.
There are also weekends of course. But ultimately kids spend about as much time in school as they do with a (working) parent.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except that's what high school should be. And let's face it, general studies courses that make up that "expansive view" of college really are repeats of high school with slightly more work, at least if you take honors classes in high school. And if that expansive knowledge is being surrounded by peers who are in pursuit of higher learning...that's not the typical college experience these days. High school is becoming…
The person you replied to also doesn't mention that just because you attend a trade school doesn't mean you can't acquire an expansive world view on your own, again more stigma that is indicated in the article. Why wouldn't a linesman, electrician or carpenter be able to self educate? We live in the day and age of the internet, the largest store of human knowledge ever to exist is a few clicks and an inquisitive mind…
Not because college is wonderful, but more because you cant get unsecured loans to sit at home and read.
(Also, pet peeve: these conversations often compare highly motivated and indepenhdent people who take the no college route to slackers who attend college.
I never see anyone pointing out the fact that highly motivated and independent people who do opt for college often do much better than they could've without the degree. Often in tippy top status/comp finance, medicine, and tech poaitions.
College doesn't make sense for everyone, but IMO it paradoxically makes the most sense for people who don't need it to enter technical fields like SWE. Because those are the ones who will end up on fast tracks after graduating that would be difficult to get on without the degree)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What if there were humanities bootcamps? That probably sounds like a joke...but why should a traditional expensive university be the only structured way to get exposure to broader human knowledge? An intensive bootcamp model doesn’t actually make sense for breadth (they are designed for the opposite)...but if you told me I could be part of a structured organization in my city where I’d be introduced to interesting br…
But would you be 5 months off of work and $15,000 interested?
Is 'video production' really a trade school? I think more of the blue-collar trades. Also, aren't video/music production classes like that usually the realm of for-profit schools like Full Sail and the job prospects dubious?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Will trade jobs be automated? Plumbers, HVAC, Welders are jobs that seem to be the least likely to be automated..
Will cars ever be automated? Who knows, but there’s a reason Uber drivers make less than cabbies did 10 years ago. Are you willing to bet the next 40 years of your working life on something not being automated?
For some jobs, automation will be a concern for those workers. I don't think its a number one concern for a lot of people but all jobs lie on a spectrum of how possible/soon they can be done by a machine. That pressure is only going to grow in the next 40 years.
I know the article doesn't touch on automation but college-educated jobs are some of the most likely to become automated by machines in the near future. Young people that see this is going to happen will be more likely to believe trade apprenticeships are a better route to go than college.
One thing that is always missing from these articles is the idea that it’s actually good for individuals (and for our society) to get an expansive view of human knowledge rather than a narrow training to turn you into a worker on a production line (or at a computer). Of course right now that’s a path that’s not accessible to many people, and people may have other financial reasons for going to trade schools, but I th…
Except that's what high school should be. And let's face it, general studies courses that make up that "expansive view" of college really are repeats of high school with slightly more work, at least if you take honors classes in high school. And if that expansive knowledge is being surrounded by peers who are in pursuit of higher learning...that's not the typical college experience these days. High school is becoming…
My humanities courses in college were bona fide mind-expanding. The problem is many colleges run their programs more like trade schools, with zero emphasis on balance between the arts and sciences.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Will trade jobs be automated? Plumbers, HVAC, Welders are jobs that seem to be the least likely to be automated..
Plumbers I can see from the range and messiness of the tasks as very non-standardized beyond pipe thicknesses, and the diagnostics and HVACs as a cousin likely would have some similar issues but why would welders be a very hard to automate task? Not dismissing it I just wonder what the "hard for machines" aspect is that I'm missing. I know there are plenty of robotic welders out there and that progress implies they'l…
I know a lot of welding is repairing damaged equipment. Especially older or already Jerry-rigged devices. I'd imagine it would be extremely difficult and expensive to develop an AI and a machine that would be adaptable enough to do these sort of projects.
Would construction welders be any less 'non-standardized' than Plumbing or HVAC? I would think welders have to problem solve far more than them for their tasks..