According to a report by CNBC, a US based cable news channel, many families in the USA are questioning the merits of a four-year college degree.
The report stated that experts are asserting the declining value of a bachelor’s degree in favour of career oriented training and development.
The current trend indicates that a growing number of companies, in the tech sector inclusive, have deprioritised degree eligibility requirements for several intermediate skill and higher skill roles.
However, a report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce titled “The College Payoff” stated that earning a degree is almost always beneficial.
This is because bachelor’s degree holders generally have an earning power that is 84% higher than those possessing just high school diplomas. The higher the level of educational qualifications, the larger the remuneration.
Data reveals that the highest paid graduates are those in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) disciplines alongside holders of health and business degrees. Their entry level salaries as well as their overall career earnings potentials have been found to exceed that of graduates of liberal arts and humanities.
A surver by ZipRecruiter revealed that 44% of all college degree holding job seekers regret their field of study.
At the top of this list were graduates of Journalism, sociology, communications and education. The survey sampled over 1,500 graduates from US colleges actively seeking employment.
Although students may be drawn to those fields while they’re in school for reasons beyond salary and job security, “when we graduate, reality hits,” said Sinem Buber, ZipRecruiter’s lead economist.
“When you are barely managing to pay your bills, your paycheck might become more important.”
Of graduates who regretted their major, most said that, if they could go back, they would now choose computer science or business administration instead.
Computer science graduates could earn as high as $100,000 entry level while BBA holders could earn over $53,000.
