Is A College or University Education Becoming Just A Dream?

By: Sherry Harris
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:26:41
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According to statistics from the House Education & the Workforce Committee a college education is rapidly becoming a fantasy for college-qualified students. The cost of higher education has been rising significantly faster than the rate of inflation or the growth in family incomes for decades. In the early 1980s tuition and fees began to grow much more rapidly than consumer prices, the cost of attending college rose over three times as fast as median family income. The problem has reached a crisis level today. The Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance indicates that cost factors prevent 48 percent of college-qualified high school graduates from attending a four-year institution, and 22 percent from attending any college at all. The statistics are similarly bleak for middle income students and families. At this rate, by the end of the decade, more than 2 million college-qualified students will be completely denied the opportunity for a postsecondary education.

Obviously this is not the type of information a person desiring to earn a good salary wants to hear. Most people are not eager to saddle themselves with huge amounts of debt in the form of student loans just to get a college degree. So what is the answer? Are there alternatives? Yes, there is vocational and career training.

This type of training is not only specific to the type of career a person chooses but the costs are significantly lower. When a person receives student loans to pay for a college education the amount to be repaid is generally three times more than the actual amount borrowed. In some cases the debt ratio is even higher than 3 to 1. Being loaded down with this much debt poses a real burden for the graduating students. It is even worse for someone who starts their college education but is not able to finish it. Now the person is stuck with large debts and no degree to attempt to get a well-paying job. With career training, the costs are so much lower that when a person completes the training in a matter of months there is no staggering amount of debt to manage. Often times the cost of the training can be paid for before the training has even been completed. Try doing that with college loans!

Not having to worry about how to pay off a student loan frees the student to focus on completing the training as quickly as possible. Upon completion of the training the graduate is now able to market their newly acquired knowledge and skills to multiple employers. Without the pressure of quickly needing to find a job to start paying a student loan, graduates can take their time in choosing the employer that suits their needs best. In other words, a graduate is not so desperate as to take the first job offered due to being in a financial bind. Yes career training is easy on the wallet but big on the future. You can save time and money by getting on a career training path.

Copyright 2006 Sherry Harris

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