Educational institutions should actively encourage their students to choose fields of study that will prepare them for lucrative careers Write a response in which you discuss your views on the policy and explain your reasoning for the position you take In

Recent studies have shown that an increasing number of students change their preferred choice of career throughout college. Being at a point in life where a lot of important decisions are to be made, a lot of students are constantly vacillating between different options for their prospective future and are actively looking out for advice. It is claimed that educational institutions should give that advice not on an unbiased basis but to actively promote fields of study that lead to more lucrative careers. In my opinion, with some minor qualifications, this statement can be refuted mainly for two reasons.

First, people undergoing our educational system should emerge as members of society being capable of making their own decisions. It would be fatal to maintain that image on the one hand and giving disingenuous advice about possible career paths on the other hand. For instance, students doing their major in philosophy might not face the most lucrative job perspectives. But maybe it doesn’t matter to them, because they thrive in discussing logical concepts. If they would now be persuaded to take up a different field of study, just because of a potential financial profit, their opinion as an individual would be diminished and not adequately regarded as it should from an educational institution. So, isn’t it the “job” of those institutions to maintain a disinterested position in order to make the individual experience what it feels to make independent decisions?

Second, nobody is able to know how a potential job market might look in the future. For instance, in Germany, it might seem like a good idea to pursue a career in automotive engineering, as there is a plethora of jobs on the market right now. But with time, alternative means of transport than classical combustion engines might emerge and other qualifications like electrical engineering are then highly sought after. But if colleges had advised most of their students to study automotive engineering there would then be too many professionals with the wrong qualification and therefore not of interest to employers. So there is no guarantee that just because a job is lucrative now, it will still be upon graduation or the years following. Therefore, it would be detrimental for students if educational institutions encouraged them to study just for a seemingly lucrative career.

However, it needs to be said, colleges should warn potential applicants or their students of harsh situations in the job market. But in doing so, they should offer students unbiased discussion whether a certain student is aware of those presumably dire conditions and if not offer them ingenuous advice as what to do.

To conclude, it can be inferred from the above mentioned that it not only can have negative aspects for students regarding their role as independent members of society but due to the constantly shifting market also detrimental effects on their promised lucrative career. Therefore, educational institutions should maintain what they are made for – an unbiased view about what a student is capable of and intrigued by and should therefore pursue as his field of study.