[mulmen]

I do not believe a university is a job training program so I don't think we should optimize for employment. Skills necessary for modern life include critical thinking and diverse perspectives on the world. This is the value of "general education".

College students don't know what they are interested in, that's a big reason for going to college in the first place. You can't ask them what they need to know because they don't know it yet.

[yorwba]

You may not believe that a university is a job training program, and I agree that it shouldn't be this way, but effectively, most students, educators and employers treat it as a training program. If universities weren't the only places to be trained for some jobs, few students would pay the high fees to receive "general education". If universities didn't provide job training, few employers would care about a degree any more than about the candidate's hobbies.

If universities are not supposed to focus on job training, then they need to be replaced in this function by some other kind of institution that does. But so long as there are no established alternatives, universities will need to continue looking out for their student's employment prospects.

[mulmen]

Technical schools exist for job training and have for decades. There is an entire industry built around technical training and certifications in the IT field.

University educations are valuable for more than just job skills, that is why they cost more and cover topics not directly related to one specific job.

[megaman22]

Unfortunately, technical schools have been very effective at giving themselves a black eye for being degree mills, scamming veterans, and churning out people who have little to no idea how to do the jobs they supposedly have credentials for.

Higher education is not a whole lot more than a filttation system; a wildly inefficient IQ and personality test for employers.

[abecedarius]

People with a degree tend to make more money than people without, even after adjusting for ability and conscientiousness. This is why most students are there at most colleges. It's very hard to teach people things they aren't willingly there for, so that they really get it.

[mulmen]

Ok but why do people with college degrees generally make more money?

[abecedarius]

Bryan Caplan argues it's mostly signaling: employers think (reasonably) that degree-holders tend to be more valuable employees than dropouts and people who didn't go to college, even though the education didn't add much to their productivity. They can't easily tell the able/conscientious/conformist dropouts from the others. https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11225.html