Many public schools are adding Cybersecurity tracks to their education curriculum. Colleges, universities, and even trade schools are frantically scrambling to cash in. Some of us remember a similar situation in the 90s when companies asked for more qualified candidates with experience (not just knowledge) of anything high-tech. As AI and quantum loom to revamp our very understanding of human interaction with technology, what can we do to prepare a workforce to meet future demands?

A Broken Education System

The most important solution is realizing the current education system is broken. Not the teachers, professors, and school systems themselves, but the curriculum. We parents ask questions like what is wrong with the mental health of our young people? Why do so many children and teens find their way to drugs, alcohol, bullying, acting out, general lawlessness, and suicide? I’m no expert and I’m not a psychologist. But my experience as a father points to general hopelessness.

The psychology of expectations states, “expectations are premeditated resentments”. Put yourself in a 14-year-old’s shoes. After 8th grade, you tell this person they MUST spend 4 years preparing for college, taking the same classes they took since 5th grade, and there are no alternatives. “I’ll never get out of school.” That’s what many think. That’s depressing. How do we positively change how young people view their own future? Read this great article about the psychology of positive expectations (Link).

History Lesson in Education

I am from a rural, poverty-stricken area in the backwoods of Southeast Kentucky. Not that many years ago, teenagers received an 8th grade education. Why? You learned all the basics by then and your family taught you how to cook, grow food, tend animals, and survive. If you wanted to learn more to be an attorney or doctor, you went to more school. Working people went to work. Those who learned trades worked under a master in their trade but by 14, you were in the workforce. Most “kids” were married by 16.

Obviously, it was a different time and place than most of us know now. It’s only better because kids now aren’t stuck on a family farm. But, higher education wasn’t meant for everyone and you can blame Thomas Jefferson. In 1779, he proposed secondary schools for the “laboring and the learned” but really for “raking a few geniuses from the rubbish.” His words, not mine (Link).

It really wasn’t until the Greatest Generation came back home from World War II did the concept of Sweet 16s and high schools emerge nationwide. Why? After facing the ravages of war, veterans wanted to keep their kids innocent as long as possible. Unfortunately, the human body and mind didn’t cooperate. Especially when you repeat the same material over and over again to fill in the gap for all four years of high school. Careful, this article includes some language (Link).

TRUTH – “You can’t do anything without a high school diploma”

Or a General Education Degree (GED). High school is an important function for the education of citizens and workers, but a blanket curriculum doesn’t fit every student. Many school districts offer flexibility in classes, start times, and most allow for work-study and work release programs. But why does the Waffle House cook need to stay in high school for four years? This is mental torture for some kids.

MYTH – “You only get the good paying jobs going to college”

HUGE LIE. Trades make more money than most and have the same growth and promotion potentials as an office job. Plus, office jobs require balance for the mind and body. Humans really weren’t meant to sit at a desk for 40 hours a week, no matter what job you do. Be right back, my watch says it’s time to stand up and walk around the room.

TRUTH – “You don’t need a college degree for most jobs”

I see the horror on teachers’ and parents’ faces when I tell kids during Career Day they shouldn’t rush off to college. It’s simply not for everyone. Remember that conversation about expectations? This also feeds back to the belief that you MUST move up the corporate ladder in your job. No. Most people aren’t Management material. If you want to be a manager or your profession requires a degree, like engineering, you will definitely need a degree. Otherwise, certificate programs and targeted training allow most people to do their jobs effectively.

MYTH – “Higher Education Is the Answer”

Then the question must involve wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on a degree with no future. If a college degree is the answer, why did the government forgive college loan payments? Probably because state-funded schools are allowing students to major in courses that the job market doesn’t want. 1,600 jobs nationwide require a Gender Studies degree (Link). We know there are at least 200,000 graduates with this major (Link). Where are they all going to work? Starbucks and Target, mostly.

A degree in IT or cybersecurity is completely useless in the real world. Believe me, I have both (BS in IT & MS in Cyber). What you learn in a university degree program is theory and basics. Sure, you learn the bare basics of operating systems and some software. Yes, you will learn how to build out a security framework. You will work with others on projects and learn basic business skills. But all of that is secondary in a cybersecurity or any IT job. 

Unqualified Teachers

Plus, tenured professors aren’t working in the real world, which means they are dinosaurs to technology after a single semester. More adjunct professors teaching as a second job could help, but universities and staff DESPISE an uneducated professor without a PhD. Why would I waste money on a PhD when all I can do with it is TEACH?

Most companies want a candidate with professional certifications, most of which require constant training, recertification, and real-world experience. You get none of this in a traditional college or university. Why? Technology moves too fast for a slow curriculum and tenured professor to keep track. A new iPhone or Android appears every year. Granted, the only change is a millimeter on the screen and it’s now yellow, but it’s different. New cybersecurity threats appear daily. How do we fix the IT job market long term?

Solution #1 – IT as a Trade

Yes, I’m going to harp on this. Trade schools could help, but the only true answer is to treat technical jobs like a trade. Like an electrician, newly trained employees should be an apprentice with a master for a certain number of years before they become journeymen. Then, eventually, after their own training, certification, and experience, they become the masters and train the next generation. But that would require businesses to treat their employees like humans, and not some renewable resource they can squander and replace.

This would also require someone, or preferably a group of organizations, to define exactly what it takes to be a “Master”. And every vendor and manufacturer will complain if their specific technology isn’t included. Well, every firewall, switch, and access point all run the same IEEE standards. Many “add-ons” are available in every vendor offering. And, let’s face it, individual corporate certifications are restrictive. Sure, you can be a Microsoft or Cisco expert, but beyond administration of those particular technologies, it’s just marketing. And no Unions! The only way to keep rates competitive is an open, free market. Read about the missing 4 million cybersecurity jobs here (Link).

Solution #2 – Degree Bounty Programs

Why doesn’t the actual job market drive which majors are most needed? Money, baby! Do you think a university will refuse to accept Daddy’s check because his baby girl wants to major in interior design but can’t figure out a color palette? Heck no! If corporations were to offer a bounty program, for lack of a better term, to colleges and universities for producing the degrees they needed, they wouldn’t offer half the degrees they do. No, really. How many interior designers can the job market support? How about MBAs? 

It’s great to have a passion, but that’s what hobbies and minors are for. I have a minor in Professional Writing because I couldn’t realistically feed my family on a Master’s in Writing. Switch that Management degree to a minor and focus on Business as your major. Keep it broad. I watched the greatest artist become a Microbiologist. She still paints and draws and even sells her work, but she knows it’s not going to pay the bills, yet. I think everyone could use a healthy dose of reality.

Solution #3 – Revamp public education

In middle school, kids should take aptitude tests to determine the types of work and careers they would truly excel in. At this point, they’ve already taken all the basic education courses they need. No, really. High school and general education courses at college are repeat information from elementary and middle school. Why? Money, baby! Schools get funds for every day a child is in their school.

High school should be where career training starts. A plumber would spend two years learning the science and math behind plumbing, then start as an apprentice. Business majors would deep-dive into finance, business history, and ethics, then start as an intern. This is where they should also learn basic life skills like cooking, changing a tire, and balancing a checkbook. These classes, like Home Economics, were taught in high school as late as the 1990s. Where did they go? Oh, right, money.

Student-Focused Education

Kids can still graduate after four years. Not locking them in useless classes will obliterate the dropout rate and improve mental health. If they change their minds, they have plenty of time to switch to something else. Even those choosing a career as a Waffle House cook would learn the basics of life and have a diploma by age 16. Why not? Why force them to stay for 4 years?

The college and university system couldn’t then lie to young adults and convince them their PhD in Underwater Basket Weaving is legitimately going anywhere. They are simply there to provide what they claim to provide in the first place, higher education. Athletes can still play sports and make millions on endorsements, giving the university a bucket of cash. That’s a problem even I don’t have a suggested fix for.

I would like to thank my lovely wife for her help on this solution!

Moving the Tassel

No, this isn’t a perfect solution and would require effort from politicians, teachers’ unions, and universities. So, it will likely never happen. Do you know how much money is pumped into public education for K-12? Well over $1 TRILLION in the US alone! That doesn’t include state and federal funded scholarships, which are taxpayer-driven. Remember how the lottery was going to pay for education? Hasn’t happened yet. How would you even start this? I think it would need to start at the private school level or find an ambitious rural area. Hey Kentucky, you’re in the lower 25% of Math and Reading scores nationwide, why not give it a try?