Freedom56
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
My 16 year old son is a junior in high school. He goes to vo-tech for welding. He absolutely 100% wants to work as a welder for his career. He's on the fence about whether or not he wants to go to college. My wife and I both strongly want him to go. My wife is a college professor and I am a doctor, so our own biases toward higher education are clearly at play here, so I figured I'd seek opinions here as well, as I know there is a broad range of occupations and education here.
We're looking at a bachelor of technical leadership degree, which is geared toward those working in blue collar industries to move into supervisory/management positions. My wife took him on a tour of the campus today, and he actually seems fairly excited about going this route. My thoughts on it are that firstly, having a degree will put him ahead of his peers for promotions, and secondly, if he were to ever be injured, he'd have a lot better shot at moving into a less physically demanding white collar job. And this last point is most important to me, as I have many patients with a particular skill set whose medical condition doesn't allow them to work in that industry, and they then struggle to find other work/go on disability.
Also, because my wife works at a state university, tuition is free, and room and board are discounted, so financially it will not be a burden for us. My biggest concern is that he will give up four years of earnings for a degree that may not ultimately earn him any more money.
What do you guys think?
I would take your son to an automobile assembly factory (arrange a tour if you live near one) and show him all the robots welding down the assembly line and explain to him that those jobs were once held by humans. You are correct to push him into a degree program.