It wasn’t long ago when we wrote a controversial post on our blog regarding college. In it we discussed how the education system in its current form was making you go broke. If you need a refresher, you can find the post here. Now with the title of this post raising a question like whether it is worth investing in a college degree, you must be asking, why are we constantly harping on about this? Well, at the expense of sounding like we are trying to say “told you so”, we must highlight the fact that Google just recently made an official announcement to substantiate our claims.
What Has Google Done?
Google just made an announcement that will disrupt the higher education echelons. They have revealed new certificate programs designed to address any skill gaps that people may have when it comes to getting high paying jobs.
What’s Different About These Certificate Programs?
Well first and foremost, they do not require 4 years to get through. Instead, the length of the lengthiest program on offer is 6 months. This means you save three and half years worth of your life to advance in your career. Precious time which you would otherwise spend held back behind the confines of some institute.
Next, you would be saving a fortune in pursuing these certificate programs as opposed to a 4 year college degree. How large of a fortune you may ask? Well allow us to try and put it this way. The average tuition for a 4 year college program in the United States is around $38K. For that amount you can acquire over 150 of these certificates. With the cost of the certificate program around 240$ a piece, these are a bargain.
Does That Mean These Are Short On Substance?
Quite the contrary. Despite being short in tenure and easy on the pockets, these certifications aren’t meant to be a walk in the park. Each of these certifications will come with over a 100 rigorous assessments. A prospective student will have to go through and pass these assessments in order to acquire the certification.
Does Google Have Any Experience In Education?
Quite a bit actually. Google has been testing this idea since 2018 through Coursera which is a platform for tech education. Since they rolled it out, their IT Support Professional Certificate has earned high praise and has become the number one certificate on Coursera with 82 percent of the graduates landing a job within 6 months of completion.
Google is now using this template to roll out the next batch of their certificates (also to be offered through Coursera). Each of the new programs offered must check the following boxes: a) it must allow the graduates to apply for an in-demand job with a high salary at an entry level position b) must be in a field that is also applicable within Google and c) can be taught online.
What Does Google Get Out of This?
The program will allow Google to train and prepare a consistent pipeline of workers that will be needed in the coming years and decades. With the demand for high tech skills only increasing with the passage of time, Google seeks to remain the industry leader. It can only do so if it has a workforce capable of meeting the demands of the future. Programs like these will allow Google to prepare a workforce trained on only the relevant expertise and cutting out the frills that aren’t needed in a conventional degree program.
The certification will be considered the equivalent of a 4 year degree by Google. And guess what? If it’s good enough for Google, other corporations such as Bayer, Deloitte, Verizon, SAP, Accenture, Intel, and Bank of America have also confirmed to treat it as such.
Why Are We Talking About This?
Here at HustleDomain, we preach financial independence and ways of becoming your own boss. So why would we be talking about signing up for a degree that will help you become a corporate slave? Is this post sponsored by Google?
So here’s the deal. Although we have strong opinions against the current state of affairs within our educational institutes, it doesn’t mean that we are against education altogether. In fact, we are staunch supporters of education and pursuit of knowledge. What we are against is how the current education system has turned into a profiteering machine that is pushing students into debt. By acquiring skills of the future without crippling yourself financially, you will be placed far better in terms of obtaining financial freedom.
Conclusion
So is it still worth investing in a conventional college degree? There are now alternatives. By obtaining a certification that will help you land a job 3.5 years ahead of your peers pursuing traditional degrees, you will be able to build a launchpad for yourself much sooner. Without student loans to worry about and being in a high paying entry level job, you will be able to set money aside at a much early stage and pursue financial independence that much sooner.