If you don't have a four-year college degree and you're worried about your chances in this tough job market, Dr. Laurence Shatkin, Ph.D., one of the nation’s leading occupational experts and co-author of the book 300 Best Jobs Without a Four-Year Degree provides a timely reminder that you don't need a four-year degree for many jobs.
Dr. Shatkin says, "A two-year degree, certification, or on-the-job training will be good preparation for most of the technology and health-care jobs that our economy will create in abundance.”
Here are the top ten on the list of occupations with expected high growth in the coming years:
- Veterinary Technologists and Technicians
- Medical Assistants
- Social and Human Service Assistants
- Physical Therapist Assistants
- Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health
- Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education
- Environmental Engineering Technicians
- Court Reporters
- Bill and Account Collectors
- Vocational Education Teachers, Postsecondary
I find this article to be deceptively biased against people who do not have a bachelor’s degree. A degree can be very useful – particularly when people hold this bias. But it most certainly is not necessary to build a professional career.
Everyone has different learning styles – myself, I just found that university was actually an *unhealthy* way to learn. That said, education IS important, so I have learned in many other ways.
Without a bachelor’s degree, I have held some fascinating and exciting professional roles: senior trainer (mostly in law firms); Director of Marketing for a $500mil corporation; Lead Consultant for a consulting company, (one of my projects brought me Canadian Project Manager of the Year honours); and even Dean of the E-Commerce program at an accredited college.
I think it is limiting to funnel people without bachelor’s degrees into certain careers, as if they have less to offer professional organizations. What differentiates is personality, creativity, and hard work: not whether you were able to stomach the unhealthy process required to obtain an undergraduate degree in today’s society.
My two cents.
I don’t see what you saw in this article that is “against” those without a degree…
If anything it’s promoting that you DON’T need a degree to have a career.
Thanks Drew! The article was worth reading if only to get to the gold nugget that your comment is. Thank you again.
Thanks Drew, yor comment gave a young twenty-something college dropout like me some encouragement. I was never academically talented but love to learn, improve and innovate. University seemed like too stifling an atmosphere for me to thrive, and I found myself itching to make an impace inthe “real” world.
Here’s to hoping I can have as varied and colourful career as yourself in the world of work!
I have been working for over 20 years, and have been passed over many times in several companies simply because I did not have any degree. I was told I was not being promoted because I did not have a degree. I have spent the last 18 months working towards an associate degree, and will take one more year of school to finish with a total of 3 associate degrees. It has not been easy, but I do have a 4.0, and feel like I will have more security in my life when I have completed school than I have ever had in my life. Never again will I be turned down, or have people treat me like I’m not in the room, because I don’t have a college degree. You may feel a degree isn’t worth it, but I feel like a degree is worth more than I can ever explain. I have lived through this for over 20 years, and that is too long for me. My experience counted for nothing.
In my 20 years of professional experience I have come across many people with degrees that are quite unimpressive to say the least. A degree does not guarantee the person has intelligence or is even qualified for the job.