The Real Bottom Line Benefits of Attending College Posted on:Thursday, September 6th, 2012

Besides familiarizing parents with the overall realities of attending college and helping them to understand what to expect out of the experience, students can also gain the support of parents by pointing out many of the long-term benefits associated with attending college.

For example, did you know that college attendance significantly increases job placement?

Many minority and low income parents are rightly worried about the state of the American economy at the moment. With unemployment proving a difficult issue to topple at the federal level, there are many who consider the ability to find well-paying work one of the utmost priorities in their lives.

This being a major concern for parents, students can help their parents to become more accepting of the idea of college by pointing out that college is now more important than ever for those who want to be competitive in the workplace. Studies show that the job market is undergoing changes at a faster rate than ever before, and in an increasingly globalized marketplace, a greater percentage of jobs are going to absolutely require the skills gained in college. In short, college is the best place to prepare for the type of demand workers will face in the future.

Besides just preparing one to better compete for jobs by gaining the necessary skills that employers are looking for, there is an actual statistically proven tendency for individuals who graduate from college to have an easier time obtaining jobs. This situation will become even truer in the future as projections suggest that by 2018, 60% of jobs will require a postsecondary degree.

Clearly, college provides a major benefit to job seekers in terms of increasing their chances of finding employment, but it can also be helpful to state this issue negatively. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in March 2011 that the unemployment rate for individuals with no college education as nearly 12%, or just about double the 6% rate experienced by those with college experience.

In short, attending college is critical if one wants to be attractive in increasingly competitive and globalized markets, where a college degree is often taken for granted. The job market is changing in such a way that, without a post-secondary degree of any sort, students are much more likely to suffer unemployment than at any other point in history.