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| Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde (2001) |
Frankie quickly feels that the nursing degree she earned in college has not prepared her for the kind of nursing work she is expected to do in Vietnam.
Given her experience, would it be fair for Frankie to feel that much of her time in college had been wasted?
Is a disconnect between college education and real world job skills a problem today?
Is it more of a problem with some degree plans than it is in others?
If a degree were not a requirement for many entry-level jobs, how many students would be better off going straight into the workforce and learning on the job?
Peyton Spahn
ReplyDelete"Given her experience, would it be fair for Frankie to feel that much of her time in college had been wasted?"
I can understand as to why she would feel that way, no amount of training could have prepared her or anyone for the stuff she would see/have to do as a Army nurse, so I can see as to why she feels like her time in college was a waste. At first she struggled, but she just needed to learn, remember her basics, and be calm.
"Is a disconnect between college education and real world job skills a problem today?"
Yes it has become a problem, and it is only continuing to get worse as the years pass. I can imagine that a big part of why this is true is because of the increase in use of AI or ChatGPT. Students will use AI or ChatGPT to answer questions on their homework, cheat on tests, write essays for them, etc. which means that the student is not actually learning the material that they will need for their future jobs. This causes the disconnect because the skills that they should obtain are not being transferred over to their future jobs since they were not even learned in the first place.
Thank you for acknowledging the use of AI to cheat. They’re not only harming themselves academically, but potentially harming others as well in so many different ways. They’re no longer taking the time to actually learn, and in the end, it negatively impacts them because they didn’t learn the skills they needed.
DeleteQuestion 1. Despite her experience, or lack thereof, I think that Frankie’s time in college was not wasted, and I believe that she should feel the same way. While she would be in a substantially better position if she had some on-the-job experience being a nurse, Frankie still knows what she needs to do to help patients. While there is a disconnect between theory and application, the theory is still there, meaning that Frankie has a very strong base to build upon.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2-3. The disconnect between educational courses and on-the-job training is still a problem in modern society. The phrase “No plan survives first contact with the enemy,” comes to mind. In its original, military context, it means that you can have a battle plan, but when bullets start flying your way, it's easy to panic and operate off your gut instead of your brain. I believe that this issue is more prominent for some majors, such as nursing, law, or sciences, such as chemistry.
Question 4. If a degree wasn’t necessary to enter the workforce, I believe that a very small number of students would be better off entering the workforce and leaning on the job as opposed to getting their degree. When in school, the point of getting a degree is to build your foundation in your field of work. Using a story familiar to myself, it is like Jesus’s parable in Matthew, chapter 7, of the wise man and the foolish man who build their houses on rocks and sand respectively. The wise man in this situation would be a student who got their degree and has a solid foundation to continue to build on. The foolish man would be the student who does not get their degree. Yes, they may be able to build their house, but it will not be as stable as the one built on the rocks, and it will topple over much easier.
Question 1: I do not believe Frankie's time in college was a waste. Frankie spent her time learning the basics of her field in college. It isn't possible for anyone to have their trade mastered by the time they graduate college. There is always something new to learn.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2: There is a disconnect between college education and real world job skills. However, I don't think it is a big issue. It would take much longer to graduate college if you learned all the real world job skills you'd need to be successful. I don't think college is meant to teach those skills. I believe you're meant to learn those on your own.
Question 3: I do think that there are more job skills you'll need in certain careers over others. From my perspective, being a chemist is mostly lab work and the majority of those job skills are applied in college anyway. A lawyer on the other hand, would require many more job skills that I don't think could be learned outside of a court room.
Question 4: I think that the majority of students would be better off going straight into the workforce if a degree was not required. While I do not think college is pointless I do think there are times when students are learning faster than they are being taught. I think those students that learn fast would be better off going to work and learning the skills they would need there.
Question one- I can understand the disconnect Frankie feels from college due to the drastic difference between the classroom setting and the war zone she is now in. However, I believe her college provided a baseline to understand common terminology and simple skills that ultimately helped her. This can be seen in her prior knowledge of bandage changing and her understanding of medical terms used.
ReplyDeleteQuestion two- I believe the disconnect of college classes and on-site jobs still exists today. In college, students are taught from textbooks designed to cover all bases of the field they work in. Nevertheless, when going into real world jobs, there’s an element of unpredictability that a new graduate may not be prepared for.
Question three- In different fields, there can be a variety of levels of this unpredictability. A student pursuing a medical occupation, like Frankie, might know the basics, but when put into a specialty job, they can lack specific knowledge. Another example could be given in the career of a technical support representative. Many different issues can arise in technology that might not have been covered in the basic class, or so lightly covered that the student feels ill-prepared. Unfortunately, many scenarios could happen in any field. It is difficult to cover everything in a class, which continues to lead to a disconnect in real-world jobs after college.
Question four- Even though there is that disconnect from college and real-world jobs, I still believe degrees are important. If a student were to enter a workplace without a degree and receive only on-the-job training, they would not be prepared. Without a baseline, they would be lacking knowledge in basic terms and skills needed for the job. Ultimately, it would lead to a slower pace of work and inevitably make it even harder for the student.
Entering the workforce and feeling unprepared, especially if one was not provided with practical skills, would seem like their school had failed them. It is reasonable that Frankie felt as if her time in college was wasted, but it was not, as nursing is one of the careers that requires a degree.
ReplyDeleteThe disconnect between higher education and the skills needed in the workforce is a glaring issue in colleges today. Colleges focus on textbooks and memorization learning, while this is rarely what fields need in an active work environment. At the beginning of college, this is necessary to learn the basics, but as education goes on, the priority should be more hands-on learning with lecture learning blended in.
The disconnect between higher education and real-life work skills is definitely bigger in some fields than others. For example, textbook and memorization learning would be more beneficial for English majors than for elementary education majors. English is focused on reading and analyzing text, while books cannot prepare someone for dealing with individual children. Majors that require hands-on experience have more difficulty adjusting to the workforce than majors that do not.
If a degree is not required for a career, a degree should not be pursued. In the current job market, experience is more important than a degree. Bachelor's degrees take four years, and many jobs require four years of experience. The sooner someone can get on-the-job experience, the better, so someone should spend the time it would take getting a bachelor's degree getting experience in their chosen field. This can also lead to sooner promotions and pay raises than the people entering the field after attending university.
Question 1:
ReplyDeleteI believe that a reason that Frankie feels unprepared is because she was taught to be a nurse in safe slower pace environment and then is just thrown into a situation where everyone is yelling and all over the place. Most colleges especially at that time had little active involvement training. She was taught in an environment where it was likely quiet and monitored. I don’t think that her time at college was wasted it was just unable to prepare her for the mass casualties that were happening at that time. I don’t think that was the institutions fault, not many people knew about the situation that was happening meaning they couldn’t truly prepare nurses for it.
Given her experience, would it be fair for Frankie to feel that much of her time in college had been wasted?
ReplyDeleteAlthough Frankie did not waste her time in college, it is understandable for her to feel that way in several aspects. She did very well in college; however, what she had learned in college did not equip her with what she truly needed to prepare for Vietnam. I don't think anything could have truly prepared Frankie for what she had to face, and she rightfully felt an overwhelming amount of doubt when she arrived, so for her to feel that college was a waste is, in my opinion, very understandable, considering the short amount of training she had after college as well.
I think her feelings are completely understandable and valid, especially in such a high-stakes environment, without much experience prior to joining the army. But I don't think that her time was wasted in college, even though it’s true that her education couldn't fully prepare her for this exact situation. She still has much of the knowledge she needs to perform her job because of her college education.
ReplyDeleteThe disconnection between college education and job skills will likely always be a problem. But college is just a different experience from having a job; there is a difference in expectations between them. In college, you are expected to learn and gain skills, and in the workplace, you are expected to apply those skills you have acquired, which I think is a different skillset on its own.
While gaining work experience can be highly beneficial in today’s economy, and for many students will be more beneficial currently, I think that attending college is beneficial as well. College provides the opportunity to explore various career options in a flexible environment, something that may not be possible when entering the workforce immediately.
Is a disconnect between college education and real world job skills a problem today?
ReplyDeleteI do believe there is a problem with a disconnect between college and real world jobs. College education is based on taking in all the information rather than learning the information through experience. Majority of students today are going to cheat when handed a packet full of questions and answers. If you were to put them into an experience based learning space they would have no choice but to fail until they learn.
Question 1
ReplyDeleteI think it’s very natural to feel unprepared when working in a hospital or in a new environment where you have limited experience. Frankie might have felt unskilled in certain aspects, but that does not mean her college education was wasted. Even when people move into new jobs or different specialties, the situation feels completely different, and it takes time to adjust. Frankie was working under very different circumstances in Vietnam compared to what she had experienced before, so it is understandable for her to feel overwhelmed. Still, the foundation she gained in college was important and necessary for her role.
Question 2
Yes, I do think there is a disconnect between college education and real-world job skills, especially in the medical field. From my own experience working in a hospital in Nepal as a new graduate medical assistant, it was very challenging to align the theories we studied in class with the actual practices we had to perform every day. In medicine and nursing, proper hands on training is crucial, because real life situations are often unpredictable and require fast decision making that you cannot fully learn from textbooks alone.
Question 3
I would also say yes, but it depends on what degree you choose. From my perspective as a medical assistant and now a nursing student, nursing and medical education can never cover every single thing in detail during classroom teaching. In these fields, practice is often case by case, and it requires critical thinking and prioritization based on the situation and environment. For example, Frankie did well when she worked in the States, but once she was placed in a neuro ward and critical care unit in Vietnam, she felt very overwhelmed. That shows how much context and environment matter in shaping how prepared someone feels.
No, I don’t think it is fair for Frankie to feel that her time in college had been wasted. Her college experience built the foundation for her to enter the field of nursing. She made the decision to enter the military after only a short period of time as a night nurse at a small hospital. As many other readers have pointed out, the military is a whole different environment than any ‘normal’ college experience. I think that Frankie could in theory be mad at the military for the lack of training they required before they sent her in-country. On the other hand, Frankie was so desperate to get to Vietnam that she chose the military branch that would get her there the fastest, which cut down her preparation time.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a natural disconnect between college education and real-world job skills. I wouldn’t necessarily say that this disconnection causes a problem. In general, college education lays the foundation for an individual to start a budding career in a coordinated field. I don't think that college education fully prepares you for all the nuances of employment, however, I think it is up to the individual to adapt to the demands of the job. Additionally, in jobs that require more risk or experience the education to enter that field is higher, leading to more opportunities to learn and develop skills.
If a degree were not a requirement for many entry-level jobs, I think 25-30% of students might be better off going straight into the workforce and learning on the job. I think that overall, college would still be necessary for the majority because entry level jobs lack promotion and pay raises.
Frankie did not waste her time in college. Her education would've been useful if she did nursing in the united states, then she would have been ready for that. Vietnam was more different than anything that anybody has ever seen. Nothing could've prepared her for the brutality of the war. It was because of her time in school she was even able to perform simple task. She had to learn on the job because no other nurses could teach how it would be.
ReplyDeleteFor the second part of the question. School is what you make it. Some people can learn much from certain classes. Others learn how to pass a test. The ability to truly understand something is different that knowing enough to get an A on the test. I look at it as you only really know something if you can teach it. In other words. If you cannot teach it to others, Then you do not know the subject to the furthest extent. I know some people are not good at teaching, but it is the idea of breaking down the part of information and relaying it to others. College will not teach you that part, that part comes from doing it. College is not there to turn you into a master. It is here to give you the building blocks to become a master when you become that profession. When you graduate a trade school, you don't have your contractors license. You become an apprentice. It takes time to become a master of a subject and it is not fair to think school makes you one. It will teach you the main points but working lets you discover the nuances of the subject.
Q 1: I believe that she did not waste any time going through college and getting her nursing degree. She learned some important basic skills that you need, no matter where you go or what you do. I do think that Vietnam, for sure, had lots of things that you are not trained for, and that the average entry-level nurse might not be super comfortable with.
ReplyDeleteQ 4: I think it depends on which jobs we are speaking about. For some degrees, like nursing and pharmaceutical jobs, it would benefit you to go through college since you are getting hands-on learning experiences. For other jobs, you might not get adequate hands-on learning in college, so jumping straight into the workforce could be better.