Unemployment data highlights growing educational divide

Getting a better education may be a key to a job or a better paying job as the linked article points out. After being a 99er, I have just completed an Associates in Arts degree at my local community college, but it would take me a couple of years more of education to get a Bachelor's degree to qualify to go back to the kind of work I did before the recession hit in 2008 as the requirements for the work I did in software QA have tightened. I was able to get work at the college for awhile, which helped pay bills. Last summer I got a few months doing the kind of construction work that I did in the 90s and then collected a small amount of unemployment in 2012. However, the Pell grant and student loans and a scholarship was most helpful because it paid tuition, books, rent and food for almost two years. I owe about $13,000 in student loans, which I will probably still be paying off after I retire, but I don't know how I would have survived without it.

However, I would recommend going to college or going back to college if you don't already have a Bachelor's degree as a way of support until you can find steady work. The jobs picture is apparently improving, but it will probably still be difficult for many workers to find work, especially at the wages they previously earned. The question remains: get education or training for what? Deciding to pursue one's dreams may not be the wisest career choice if there is little opportunity for people with unmarketable skills. A high school diploma is no longer a ticket to many entry level jobs, but an AA degree demonstrates that a perspective employee, according to Jack Downing, "can learn, and most likely are going to be committed to career development.” An AA degree may not get them a good paying job, but it may open opportunities that a high school grad is no longer given. The tough choice is what field to go into, such as engineering, that is in demand and will pay an adequate wage.

Excellent advice USA citizen.

by USA Citizen Today at 12:20 am
"""the Pell grant and student loans and a scholarship was most helpful because it paid tuition, books, rent and food for almost two years. I owe about $13,000 in student loans, which I will probably still be paying off after I retire, but I don't know how I would have survived without it. """

I have a few friends, who collect Social security disability. There seems to be an obscure law that says the Gov CANNOT take money out of your benefits that will put you in "economic hardship"......

1) you are allowed an insane amount of "deferments" and forebearances due to "little income" a total of SIX years during that time your loan status remains GOOD and is not in repayment.

2) you must miss 7 months payments to go into default.

3) the Fed can only keep your "withholding tax"....change your W-4's to EXEMPT and don't let them withhold anything....

4) i believe my one friend has either nothing or a TEN dollar monthly agreement to repay while receiving social security....

Good advice, USA citizen. I owe almost $60K and I'm just starting my career. If someone thinks they are going to live in the past and given a job "just because" they are going to be homeless.

I can't say too much about constant training.

macky

twenty years of schooling, and they put you on the day shirt??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKfrjk6suAQ

elvis44102 wrote:twenty years of schooling, and they put you on the day shirt??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKfrjk6suAQ

I love Bob Dylan. Very nice, Elvis44102!

macky

i went back to school retrained in the IT field, got 4 years experience when the "market" crashed and now get a few contracts here and there...

I have read thousands and thousands of books....sometimes i feel if i learn any thing more the whole brain will burst and Everything will be lost....

in essence i feel as though i know nothing at all at times....

Perhaps you should become an IT manager and move away from all the certs and technical specialities that are so hard to keep in tune with.

It sounds like you have a vast amount of overall knowledge and with your life experience you'd be best off mentoring those that are just coming into this "much changed and changing every day" field.

It sounds as though you would be excellent!

macky

Actually time just fly's by when i am actively working on a PC problem..

I used to work in substance abuse, and was technically in charge of a dozen or so clients....

I am not good with "rules" as other staff thought the clients were too relaxed and comfortable with me...If its not earth shatteringly important to the flow of things, I disregard it and let you do it your way.....something frowned upon by the higher ups

Yes you sound like a technician at heart, for sure. I've seen senior technicians thrown the role of managing and directing others, which leads away from the focus at hand.

Virtualization, VDI thin clients, and this new enterprise solution is currently "hot potatoes". I'd highly recommend learning this specialty to re-inject into the industry asap.

macky

""Virtualization, VDI thin clients, and this new enterprise solution is currently "hot potatoes". I'd highly recommend learning this specialty to re-inject into the industry asap."""

You are probably correct...I did a small contract with help desk in a firm that had several hundred thin clients....mostly the tech goes out on the floor and swaps the box....pretty simple

If i remember correctly the server running the Virtualization was a Mac, which of course had its own admin, who was always just roaming around the building....

They had two people who worked with Macs exclusively as the Graphics dept
used them....

I'm not an expert on virtualization, but I've mostly seen the VM server run on Linux or Win, with VMware running on the thin clients for administration and of course Win virtualization.

VMware for the MAC is available but I don't recommend it. Authenticating MAC logins via the domain and virtualization is quite easy, but after that the local MAC environment is too unique to be imaged for central push-outs - and the Apple licensing, etc. is horrendous.

There is indeed another area lately as far as administering to many iPads at once within a centrally docked Bretford cart and a dedicated Apple laptop - saves a LOT of time for companies using iPads at the enterprise level. This is another "educational" avenue to explore.

However my suggestion would be to focus on the Win side of things. That's the "meat and potatoes" still.

macky

About education:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/09/09/megan-mcardle-on-the-coming-burst-of-the-college-bubble.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_morning&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_morning&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet

need_a_break wrote:About education:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/09/09/megan-mcardle-on-the-coming-burst-of-the-college-bubble.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_morning&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_morning&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet

This excellent article: "Is College a Lousy Investment?" by Megan McArdle describes the breakdown of the educational system in the United States and is concisely summarized by LiveFreeorDieInNH: "This long article could be summarized in one sentence: "All degrees are not equal and more students are getting degrees that do not map to the real world".

McArdle states: "For many students, college is less about providing an education than a credential—a certificate testifying that they are smart enough to get into college, conformist enough to go, and compliant enough to stay there for four years."

A previous comment by Elvis described the lenient terms for repayment of college loans for those getting social security, and McArdle adds that: "A law passed in 2007 allows many students to cap their loan payment at 10 percent of their income and forgives any balance after 25 years."

The article also points out that a credential is almost required for flipping burgers or at least is often the tipping point between hiring someone without a degree and someone with one for a job that doesn't require any higher education. My original comment about this topic was about taking out grants and loans to get by if you are unemployed, not necessarily the consequences of taking on huge debt. If there are no jobs or you can't get one with your current skill level, then getting a grant and loan could save you from homelessness.

Here are a couple of links for Boomers and 55+ workers who are considering higher education:
How Boomers Can Reinvent their Careers
http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2012/09/06/how-boomers-can-reinvent-their-careers-62904244/?intcmp=fbfeatures

No Jobs for Older Men?
Men 55-plus face surge in unemployment; older women also hit hard
http://www.aarp.org/work/job-hunting/info-12-2010/no_jobs_for_older_men.2.html

My question to Macky, Elvis and those who know is about developing a web site that could easily present educational and lifestyle options for those who need to know. I previously hosted a web site with nearly 70 pages of information about surviving these tough times and nearly 100 links to help sites, but it was in html and as most other sites it did not lead the reader to logical choices. What tools would I need to create a site that has an easy access to information and a type of calculator that would provide the user with logical choices about career, education and survival. Thanks.

I did not know about the 2007 law, but it makes sense....

i don't know much about web design, except that when i put a web server on my own home PC the ISP blocks port 80 which is the default web port

I do think i have seen excellent services available for a small fee..

as far as i know ALL web pages are more or less HTML....
any dynamic or active content is "embedded" within the HTML

if you need some software to make fancier animated dynamic content some of which can cost thousands of dollars, i would search some of the torrent sites that are hosted out of this country for a pirated copy of such....

I used to use demenoid for such...but they just went offline again...