  More and more students graduate from high school with ambition to get a college degree, but college tuition has skyrocketed in recent years.  New universities can only be built so fast and existing universities can only serve a limited number of students.  In reaction to this great increase in demand and slow increase in supply, colleges increase the price of tuition more and more.  However, these students are able to turn to only a limited number of scholarships and loans.  60% of students take out loans that average to be $30,000 (Student Loan Debt Statistics).   Excessive loans lead to excessive debt once the student graduates.  Therefore, former students begin their independent lives overcome with crippling debt.  They now find themselves behind and trying to catch up.  On the other hand, industry faces problems with labor shortages, and many turn to outsourcing their companies or employing illegal immigrant mostly unskilled labor due to the lack of citizens willing and able to take up the occupation. This has happened because a generation taught their children that going to college is for smart people while working with your hands is for stupid people.  High school has become pre-college with classes under the classification of "college prep."  Students are rarely shown avenues other than university enrollment and if they are shown alternatives it is a very rare instance.  Flooding of the higher education market conversely leaves the industry market wanting.  The simple solution to this issue is to invest in programs targeted at high school students that encourage more of them to seek blue collar jobs.  By hiring retired factory workers to teach, and setting aside space to hold classes on high school campuses, students could go to almost any school and learn the benefits and drawbacks of both white collar work and blue collar work as well as provide the students with an understanding of which field suits them best.

The current policy on this issue is to ignore it and continue to expand higher education and loans and, along with it, debt.  As a band aide, this will work in the short term. In the long term, many people will graduate from college to discover either that their degree is useless or that there are far too many people with the same degree competing for a limited number of jobs.  Conversely, workers in blue collar industries are experiencing better treatment from their employers (Kelly 2014).  Another shortcoming is that industry work has been stigmatized as being for those not intelligent enough to succeed in higher education.  Consequently, those holding blue collar jobs are thought to be on lower standing than white collar workers.  Luckily, some schools are taking action to show high schoolers the alternatives to college work.  A number of vocational schools have been rising and bringing in prospective students to learn the trade (Teresa 35).  These schools have a very wide variety of different skills for students to focus on.  Unfortunately, there are a number of disadvantages to this system.  These classes are on separate facilities miles away from the students' traditional high schools, so students would need to have already decided that they wanted to learn the skill and devote most of the school day to learn it.  This current system does not address the issue that many students are ill exposed to the opportunities they have in vocational work.  

The proposal is simple; funding should be allocated to high schools to provide for new teaching staff and possibly new space for vocational education and training.  The teachers could be retired industry workers struggling to live off of social security.  Their immense experience in their line of work would be a huge help in conveying the reality of the field.  This employment would also aid the prospective teachers by offering a line of work to enter after one becomes too old for physical labor.  Next, space would need to be allocated for these classes.  These classes could be taught outside if the material permits it otherwise the schools would need to acquire new classrooms.  Rooms that once were woodshop classes would work quite nicely for these new classes.  But, more space is needed.  It is likely that external facilities, near or on campus, would need to be constructed.  Once built, these classrooms could be available for normal one hour classes, or block 2 hour classes, to any student interested in that particular craft such as construction or welding. 

 These classes would be offered as electives to incentivize students to try multiple opportunities while still gaining the credit needed to graduate.  Also, a requirement for one or two of these classes could be implemented in a way similar to how foreign language is required.  This could further expose students to different possible future jobs in vocational work.  A last extension onto this program would result from the teachers themselves.  Any student reaching his later years in high school could talk to his instructor in order to seek a job.  These instructors would have relationships and perhaps even funding from companies in a similar way to that which is found in the German vocational system (Teresa 34).  This program used investments from corporations to fund the student's education and training and provided a connection to a job after graduation.  This would be a mutually beneficial agreement because the schools could receive funding for supplies and materials for their students from private companies, while the schools connect the interested students with a possible employer.  Students face less stress from worrying about where to work or where to start a career.  This relationship will be mutually beneficial to all three parties included in this proposal.

The advantages of this process greatly outweigh the disadvantages.  This proposal is one that would work with the long held concept of supply and demand rather than wage a losing battle against it.  The primary purpose of going to college is to attain a degree. One gets a degree in an effort to make oneself scarcer as a product (employee) to be bought (hired) by a customer (employer.)  Unfortunately, so many people have had this idea that one is simply on par rather than ahead with a college degree.  These former students now must compete with each other to fill a select amount of openings in their particular field.  All the while, their debt from student loans is brewing to new heights.  This leaves jobs in vocational work prime for the future of young people.  They will not accumulate debt from student loans.  They can start working and making an income immediately.  If they are given the proper training they will be able to find an opening with a lot less competition (Kelly 2014).  There are most likely much more openings in jobs that require physical effort.  Of course, the jobs these students will be competing over will not be restaurant staff, but builders, welder, farmers, and many others.

In relation to execution of the proposal, hiring retired blue collar workers to become teachers will help build a base for the program.  These instructors will be able to teach their students using the most important asset for finding a job, experience.  While helping out any struggling blue collar workers by providing a source of income in addition to social security, they will be able to teach their pupils exactly what it is like to work in a blue collar job.  This class would not include theory and there would be no textbook.  Although there may be some instances in which a text would be useful.  They would not need pencils or paper, but only their own two hands.  Of course, some students would realize that blue collar work is not for them, however some may find that it is exactly what they want.

In conclusion, by hiring retired blue collar workers to teach vocational skills to students just as a normal class in high school, more students will go into blue collar fields to reap the benefits.  Consequently, this will alleviate, to some degree or another, those on the college path of the crippling debt they face and allow them to find a less competitive job market for their degree. At the end of the day, these students will gain experiences not allotted to them before.  Whether they love or hate vocational work, by going home daily with dirty sore hands, they may develop a respect for the job and the people who perform it.  Perhaps one day when they are the boss and calling the shots, they will remember the experience of working with your hands and have greater compassion for their employees.  Overall, by funding vocational schools and investing in the future of our student's by giving them programs allowing them to have more than just college as an option, we can give our economic society more balance and less unemployment. 

