What The Largest State In The US Can Learn From The Happiest Country In The World

Texas wants 60% of young people to have some sort of degree within 6 years of graduating high school.

In Switzerland, nearly 100% of the population has either a university degree, a trade school degree or professional training.

I’m pinpointing Switzerland because I’m currently doing research here, but also because the US is quite interested in their “dual” education model and how it could work back home.

Just two weeks ago, an agreement was signed between the US and Switzerland to bring Vocational and Educational training to the US. Swiss firms in the US will expand apprenticeship programs, using local community colleges to hold the instruction segments and their own firms for the work segments. This. Is. Happening. Coming to a city near you!

Here’s the problem with the Texas plan and others like it in the US.

We are shoving all students through a narrow funnel, into a homogenous learning model that is higher education in the US.

Whether a student chooses community college or an elite 4-year college, we call it college. The student is forced to choose a version of college, but college is still the only option.

So what about the kids who cannot stand the thought of sitting in a classroom, getting through more core requirements after they complete compulsory schooling? Well, these kids can tell their families, with head hanging and eyes down to the floor, that they are going to forgo college education (the scenario is even more bleak for children of immigrants, whose parents may have come to the US in large part so their children could obtain higher education). Then, they either work in Bob’s auto shop until they feel like experts and maybe open their own shop, or hope to become the next Mark Zuckerberg…

There really is no designated path for the kid who knows he wants to start working, who knows exactly where his passions lie and who doesn’t want any distractions.

There is no job training that combines classroom time with work time to give a student a degree in a specialized field and a career that he can be proud of. No, we don’t have that in the US, but this is an integral part of Swiss society.

When the US comes gawking at their smooth-running machine that is dual education, the Swiss couldn’t imagine it any other way. Only about 30% of students choose the university path. The rest choose one of many options for professional training, be it in sales, carpentry, hairdressing or manufacturing. Students who choose this latter path can go on to graduate from “Fachhochschule”, university for the trades, and earn the same respect (if not more) as their peers in university.

This also means that universities are not all things to all people in Switzerland — they don’t have to be. There’s no reason that turf management or even business, should be housed at a university. These are career-centric subjects for career-minded students. Students who want to pursue these fields should have a path open to them, not just a college path, that allows them to receive highly specialized, quality training in their fields.

I would bet that if students in Texas had a similar dual model in which students desiring to enter a trade could study and learn on the job without the same course requirements and expectations as at a college or university, then Texas would exceed its 60% goal. And even better, its young people (from both the university path and the trade path) would feel greater career pride, knowing they are truly experts in their fields, doing work that is really quite special.