[ghaff]

That seems unrealistic for the most part. No, most universities aren't optimized as trade schools focused on near-term employment prospects. And, you can certainly choose a university and major that, shall we say, sub-optimizes employment prospects.

However, it's certainly the expectation of most people that going to university for four years is going to improve their employment prospects--often in a field directly related to their undergraduate study. And as someone else noted, schools absolutely put effort into relationships and programs that improve their graduates' job prospects.

[pm90]

> And as someone else noted, schools absolutely put effort into relationships and programs that improve their graduates' job prospects.

They also put in efforts in a bunch of other places as well.

I will admit that, coming from a lower middle class background, university education to a 17 year old me was mostly a way to optimize my career prospects. But in hindsight, I would say it is a lot more than that. The two most important skills I learned were probably critical thinking and team work. There were also many side-benefits, that you get merely from being in close quarters with so many different kinds of people... to learn that diversity is important, that even people from different cultures are awesome etc. These soft skills are very important, and I don't see a way of acquiring them otherwise.

However, I think a way to remedy this would be to be very clear with what a university provides instead of being vague about it. e.g. if you pursue CS in Uof Something, you have x % chances of getting a job here right out of college. I agree Universities have been co-opted into being preparatory schools for the job market, but that is too narrow a purpose for them.

[ghaff]

I don't really disagree with any of that. There are (mostly good) reasons why most universities look and act differently than they would were they solely constructed for learning some trade whether white collar or otherwise. Part of this is that the training part is mixed in, for many people, with moving out of the house for the first time, being self-directed to a greater degree, etc.

That said, there's also a general expectation that, barring graduate school, university grads will also go on to earning their own living. Some do so with just generalized university education--which is more or less what you have if you majored in medieval German literature. But it's easier with an engineering degree or something else that ties directly to what a company is specifically hiring for.

[pm90]

That's a good point. While they're definitely not the same thing, I wonder if the goal posts are just changing. So at first, it was: complete high school and you will def get a job! And then it was: get a univ education and then you will def get a job!

Maybe the economy is just changing so much that we simply don't have the capacity to absorb so many workers. Or maybe we need to direct more resources to create employment in those areas (i.e. more funding for arts, history, archaeology etc.). I don't know what the solution is.