Diploma Fading In Job Market

June 21, 1990|The Morning Call

Employers have been complaining for years about the quality of education provided by America's public schools. Now, some of them are taking steps to remedy a situation they consider unsatisfactory by hiring college graduates for jobs that once did not require a college degree. Among the jobs, The New York Times reports, are bakers, traveling sales persons, secretaries, clerks, data processors and factory supervisors.

There are several reasons for this, the principal one being the glut of college graduates. About 25 percent of the nation's work force holds college degrees and the number is expected to increase. In addition, many jobs are becoming more technological and demand increasingly higher levels of educational skills to perform. Finally, employers believe, rightly or not, that college graduates are more likely to have developed such traits as punctuality, good work habits, and the ability to learn on the job.

Employers also are distrustful of the quality of education given in the high schools, which have been accused of handing out diplomas to functional illiterates. Not only are they skeptical of the effectiveness of the teaching of such skills as mathematics and science, they sometimes have trouble determining whether an applicant actually took them. Surveys have shown that fewer than 20 percent of high schools asked for transcripts respond. This is an inexcusable disservice to both the applicant and the potential employer.

Consequently, corporations have been relying less and less on applicants with only a high school diploma. Often when they do they have found it necessary to provide on-the-job training to build workers' skills. Others, such as Motorola, have gone further and provided remedial education to qualify workers for on-the-job training. And many others have resorted to the hiring of college graduates.

As a result, the wage gap between the college-educated and the high school-educated has been widening steadily and is likely to continue to do so. This is another in the long list of damning criticisms made in recent years of our system of education. It weighs in heavily in the push to require more of our elementary and secondary schools.

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