Is an Education Not Worth Something?
Somewhere along the way our perception of the value of an "online" education became vastly skewed. I want to explain this in a little detail and put things into a bit of perspective here.
If anyone has read any of my self-proclaimed frustration regards the education system, you will understand how unimpressed I am with the dated system that people are being thrown into and the end result of our traditional "institutionalized" school systems.
Being educated and investing in your education has always proven to be the best personal investment you can make. Better than the stock market. Better than real estate. And definitely better than buying a lottery ticket.
Things are changing however and they are doing so quickly. Since 1980 education prices have increased over 600% while median household incomes have barely gone up (see chart below).
How is this possible? And why isn't education paying off like it used to?
Because people are learning skills that are IRRELEVANT and education is vastly overpriced. To be completely honest with you, The Open Education Project is the start of initiative by Carson and I to lower the cost of education. Information has never been cheaper to create and cheaper to deliver, yet worldwide education is leaving people with no job and an average of $40,000 in debt.
I know I felt Irrelevant.
I remember when I graduated from my college degree in Computer Science (was a fast track 2.5 year program) I felt as though I had accomplished something, I did learn a lot of things, but I came out feeling unprepared.
The reason was simple. The focus was tests and assignments. I would spend my week nights cramming for exams, getting great marks...only to forget half of the material the next day. By the time I graduated, half of the material I had learned had become outdated due to the speed of the technology. The other half I simply forgot because it had washed off my hand (shhh...don't tell anyone).
I can remember the feeling on graduation day. "Man, I don't really know anything". I had already lined up a job, but guess what I was doing the whole time while I was at school.
Learning how the Internet works. Learning about marketing. Trying things out on line. Building stuff, building web pages, and ultimately building a business. Although I felt my education was irrelevant when I left school, in the 2.5 years I was there I managed to create an Internet business.
Did attending college lead to this success? No. Learning the right skills did. And that leads me to...
Why I Think YOU Are Ahead of the Game!
It is true. By getting an education of how the Internet works and working to create an Internet business you are WAY ahead of the game.
Let me explain what I am talking about.
The Internet is relevant. The Internet is highly sought after by companies worldwide. Learning how the Internet operates and how to leverage it to create business is probably the most powerful tool you can have these days.
You can use the skills you learn here to:
(1) Create a business for yourself (many ways to do this)
(2) Help existing business create more business
(3) Offer more value to an existing company you work for
(4) Get Internet related jobs
(5) Freelance with the skills you learn
This is real. These are valuable skills. And you are an "educated" person because of them.
The stigma of having to attend a college or university to be an educated person is soon going to dissipate. Education is great, don't get me wrong but there are many ways to educate yourself and just because your education does not cost a lot of money (like WA) shouldn't make you feel as though carries less value. Your education platform and community should cost less than $1 per day and we are going to continue making this a reality. Technology says so!
People pay for skills, not a piece of paper.
Love to hear your thoughts on this!
Growing up in the UK education isn't the be all and end all of finding work. My last job there I started out at the bottom, and yeah it took me a few years but I clawed my way up to a reasonable position, all without the appropriate qualifications.
Here in Finland, a piece of paper is EVERYTHING. You will always be second place to someone with a degree. Mainly this is because education here is free,but because of that the mindset is if you dont have a degree why would I hire you when Joe Smith (or perhaps Mikä Hakkinen) has the same experience AND a degree?
And unlike you, It then took me approximately 6 mos after graduation to land a job as a Computer Operator, the bane of a degree yet no real world experience. But in the interum, I had been "talked" into pursuing a Masters In Comp Sci, since I wasn't doing anything during the time between when I graduated, and finally landed my first job. It was thought that a second degree would make me more marketable. The degree never happened, but I am still paying on student loans with nothing to show for it. I also partially pursued an MBA, but it was my decision to quit as I had finally come to the realization that burning the candle at both ends, as well as incurring debt would not further my career that much.
Fast forward a few years and the accident of finding WA has changed my life forever. While my parents may not be thrilled with the idea of my throwing away an expensive degree, I have realized that I need to take control of my future. The OEP project is proof that education should not have to cost a fortune, yet colleges across the country keep raising their tuition because they claim the cost of operation keeps going up and up, but it will do them no good if the struggling students can't afford to pay it.
I find that when I diversify my knowledge set on several topics, it enables me to pull from a variety of knowledge sources when coming up with ideas and evokes far more creativity. Education in the form of university and college is vastly overpriced no matter at which way you look at it.
We will continue to push the NEW world of education with OEP. :)
Conventional education models do not support this style of learning. Education has to change and has to become an ongoing and evolving discussion, there is nothing static about it.
Some people need the regimine of actually "being somewhere" to be productive, but as we push The OEP to it's limits here, it is going to definitely feel more and more like being somewhere.
Thanks for your feedback!
