Millennials' murky roadmap Tech's light-speed advances challenge planning

This is the first of a two-part series on education and career challenges facing the Millennial generation, as rapid-fire technology advances change the culture and workplace so quickly that there is barely time to make one life-path decision before the entire landscape shifts dramatically once again.

TODAY: How should younger Millennials approach education? And is the value of a college degree diminishing right before our eyes?

By STEVE CAMERON

Staff Writer

Les Atchley can tell you a horror story about student debt.

“I have a client whose granddaughter is a veterinarian,” said the longtime Coeur d’Alene financial advisor. “She went to school in the Caribbean (Ross University on the island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis).

“She’s making about $100,000 per year — but her student loan wound up being $400,000. She pays $1,200 per month, which is high but doable, except that there is 7 percent interest on the principal.

“The way the system works, the debt is forgiven after 20 years — which in her case would be around $700,000. That sounds fair, except that forgiven debt is taxable, so eventually she will receive a 1099 form showing a one-year income of $700,000.

“She’ll owe about a quarter-million in taxes for that year. She asked me: ‘Where in the world will I get $250,000 to pay that?’”

Granted, that vet’s situation resides at the nightmare end of student debt tales. But Atchley used it to introduce a point that affects millions of Millennial students, even if most aren’t heading into some unique career like treating animals.

“I think the lesson is that we’ve reached a point, in this culture of technology and the changing workplace, where potential students — and often their parents — should think of college in terms of the cheaper, the better,” he said.

“The reality now is that employers don’t care about college. They want to know if you have a marketable skill, and that piece of paper on the wall doesn’t make any difference at all.”

There is no question that galloping technology is altering career plans, and how Millennials now must combine useful knowledge with “soft skills” like acquiring relationships to make the most of their earning potential.

But is the traditional, four-year college education going to be a discarded victim of this culture shift?

“I wouldn’t go quite that far,” said Morag Barrett, international author, speaker and CEO of SkyeTeam, a Denver-based group of employment and workforce consultants. “But we definitely have to look at education differently than in the days when you got your degree, went to work for a company that fit your background and stayed there for most of your career.

“People aren’t retiring with a gold watch anymore. The workforce is incredibly mobile as technology speeds along — so your education plans should reflect that.”

Barrett believes Millennials are far better off cultivating relationships in college than worrying about their major courses of study.

“There are people who say you’re wasting your time by paying a lot of money — and probably incurring future debt — to spend four years getting a liberal arts education,” Barrett said.

“That’s not necessarily true. If philosophy or some other liberal arts program is your passion, go for it. But always keep in the back of your mind that you want to leave school with helpful relationships, with experiences that are new and provide a look at the world around you, and with interaction in adult situations you’re going to find when it’s time to earn a living.

“When that career time comes, it won’t be about who you know. It’s who knows you. You want to be one phone call away from achieving your dream.”

Barrett preaches that nothing can stop technology from upending our world, and how we hope to forge a career in it.

She points to a study that suggests students beginning primary school today will leave college to discover that 65 percent of available jobs then don’t even exist now.

Even students entering high school, just eight years removed from a possible bachelor’s degree, will run into an economic trend called Moore’s Law — which states that computing power doubles every 18 months.

Robert Ketchum, a lecturer in occupational education at the University of Idaho (Coeur d’Alene) and a Ph.D. in vocational and technical skills, agrees with Barrett’s premises.

But only in part.

“These so-called soft skills might be great once you have a good job and you’re moving in upward circles,” Ketchum said. “But to get into the workforce at the entry level, you’d better be able to actually do something.

“If you can, you’re ahead of the game — because honestly, right now employers are doing about 80 to 90 percent of training. New employees really don’t arrive with actual skills.

“Our education system is based on a decision from several years ago, when the United States decided to adopt a ‘knowledge economy.’

“We wanted to be smarter than everyone else. Unfortunately, while that was happening, China was going to a manufacturing economy — they were making ‘stuff.’

“Guess what? Everyone is always going to buy ‘stuff,’ including all the smart people here in the States. We still need ‘stuff,’ which explains why we now have a trade deficit with China.”

Ketchum used that statistic in much the way Atchley told the story about the veterinarian who someday will confront a staggering debt — to make a wider point.

“As a country, we need to get back to making things and teaching useful skills,” Ketchum said. “Young people often are far better off going to a community college or a tech school than dreaming about the four-year university that was the place to go in their parents’ day.”

Barrett, on the other hand, isn’t so eager to see young people opting for a skill that will produce an immediate paycheck. She’d rather have young Millennials looking well into the future.

“Technology disrupts industries but creates new opportunities,” she said. You can be a casualty of the disruption or reap the benefits of applied innovation. It’s your choice.

“The irony is that the industry of learning is perhaps the least prepared to meet the onslaught of the future-proof workplace. The rate of change outside the academic world is lightning fast, the hare to the education tortoise.

“New jobs are constantly emerging. Now consider the jobs of the future, and what they might include: robot repair technician? Hologram stylist?

“Learning and re-learning is the 21st-century imperative.”

So who has the correct formula?

“It’s probably a little bit of everything, given this technology culture,” Atchley said. “But whatever direction you go, cheaper is better. That’s just common sense, no matter what school or career path you’re thinking about.”

MONDAY: What does the workplace look like in an era driven by ever-changing technology? Why might Millennials aiming for worthwhile careers have an advantage in North Idaho?