畢業即失業？八成大學生在浪費生命

We talked to the one of the most vocal college skeptics in a growing national debate about the value of a degree.
在日益升溫的關於“學位價值何在”的全國性討論中，我們採訪了一位知名的上大學懷疑論者。

Penelope Trunk, author of Brazen Careerist and widely syndicated guru, estimates that 85% of college students are wasting their time and money on getting a degree.
佩內洛普-特蘭克是《厚顏野心家》一書的作者，同時也是一位企業家，她估計，85%的大學生正在爲了得到一個學位而浪費時間和金錢。

Please take this estimate with a grain of salt, as most experts will still tell most students to go to college. Trunk's reasoning is certainly provocative, however, and it may be coming into the mainstream as more students are finally deciding to pass on college.
請大家持保留意見來看待這一評估，因爲絕大多數的專家依舊會建議大部分的學生去大學深造。特蘭克的理論無疑非常挑釁，然而，隨着越來越多的學生最終決定不去上大學，這一觀點也許正在成爲主流。

Trunk says you should skip college unless you're really great at school or got accepted into a top ten school. Instead "you should just go to work."
特蘭克說，除非你真的學業非常好或者被排名前十的高校錄取，否則你應該放棄大學學習。取而代之的是，“你應該去工作。”

In her recent article published on LinkedIn, Trunk advises young people to re-think college and focus on internships, saying that anyone can teach themselves the skills needed to be successful. She gives the example of an MIT program that gave iPads to illiterate kids in Ethiopia who then were able to teach themselves how to use it, program it and read it in English without a teacher or curriculum.
在她最近發表在社交網站Linkedin上的文章中，特蘭克建議年輕人對大學學習要三思，把主要精力集中在工作實習上。她說，任何人都可以自學成功所需的技能。她例舉了一個麻省理工大學做過的項目，在項目中，實驗者將iPad 送給埃塞俄比亞的文盲兒童，他們就可以在沒有老師或課程的指導下，自學如何使用iPad，給它編程序，閱讀它的英文版。

With college costing more than ever, getting a degree may actually limit your career choices.
隨着大學學費史無前例地高漲，僅爲了得到一個學位可能會限制你的職業選擇。“How do you make those loan payments? There are like five career paths for you if you take out a $100,000 loan,” Trunk says, while “if you don't take out any loans, then the whole world is opened to you.”
“你怎麼償還助學貸款？如果你取出十萬美元的助學貸款，你可能會有5條職業發展途徑，但如果你不使用任何貸款，那全世界的所有機會都會向你敞開。”特蘭克說。

And then there's the question of time.
這兒還有個時間問題。

“We’re not debating if you should be taking out loans ... we know that’s a bad idea ... we’re asking, ‘Is it worth your time?’” Trunk says.
“我們並不在爭論你是否該取出你的助學貸款……我們都知道那是個糟糕的主意……我們在問你，這值得你投入時間嗎？”特蘭克說。

Trunk also says that college does not provide significant leadership or managerial skills development, arguing that people either have these skills or they don't.
她還說道，大學並不提供重要領導力或管理技能的發展，並認爲要麼學生已經擁有這些技能，要麼他們不需要。

“Every Fortune 500 company will give you a Myers-Briggs personality test now to see if you're capable of becoming a leader at their company” she says.
“所有世界五百強企業都會給你一份性格測試來檢測你是否具有成爲公司領導者的潛能”她說。

So what should young people be doing to launch their careers if they're not going to college? Trunk says they should be working in internships at an early age, because “the best path to a good job is a bunch of great internships,” and if you get a head start in high school, you can take advantage of living with your parents while working an unpaid internship. By the time you get to “college age,” you'll have the experience to work in an industry you want — and get paid for it, but “you can’t take this route if you have no work experience when you graduate college. It’s too late.”
那麼如果年輕人決定不去念大學，他們該做什麼來啓動職業藍圖呢？特蘭克說，他們應該在年輕時開始實習工作，因爲“得到好工作的最佳途徑是大量優秀的實習經驗”。如果你在高中就開始了實習，那時的實習大多是不帶薪的，你就可以充分利用與父母居住在一起的便利條件來解決這一問題。當你到了“上大學年齡”，你就會擁有在企業工作的經驗——並且得到報酬。但是“如果當你大學畢業時沒有工作經驗，你不會得到這個機會。太遲了。”

So should 85% of students skip college, causing the high education system to plunge into bankruptcy?
那麼85%的大學生應該放棄大學，令高等教育系統陷入破產局面嗎？

Let's hope schools find a way to evolve so it doesn't come to that. If our education system doesn't evolve in a way that teaches more students how to think like innovators and disruptors, would-be college grads may be better off jumping into the global workforce right away.
讓我們寄希望於大學能找到發展方式以避免此種後果。如果我們的教育體系不能找到改進方法，教給更多學生去思考如何創新，如何打破城規，那大學的準畢業生們最好立刻離開校園，擠進國際勞動力市場開始工作。