Sharing Challenges and Solutions

 Overview:

As you put everything together this week and work on structuring and writing your research essay for the

Unit 3: Addressing Issues Research Essay Assignment

, use the discussion board to connect with your classmates and work out any problems you are having as you write.

Assignment:

Write an initial post in which you share your most pressing questions and thoughts about your own writing as you complete the Revised Proposal and work on the Research Essay. As you write, try to create openings for your classmates to offer their insight and perspectives to the questions you ask.

Look back over the assignment prompt for Unit 3: Addressing Issues Research Essay Assignment and also look back at your submission for the

Revised Research Proposal

assignment. You might consider some of the following questions to get you started:

• What parts of the research essay assignment seem the most challenging for you? What parts would you like your classmates to help explain? What criteria would you like help addressing?
• Where are you having the most difficulty in planning and writing? What questions can you ask of your classmates to help you address these problems?
• What gaps are you finding in your research that your classmates can help you address?
• Of the basic “ingredients” for making arguments, which are you most unsure how to use in your writing? What strategies can you gather from your classmates?
• What weaknesses or challenges are you finding in your process of writing (your writing environment, schedule, etc.)? How might ideas from your classmates help you? 

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Definition and Synthesis

Context of the Issue

In the contemporary world, clinching an employment opportunity or position has turned out to be problematic. The number of her learning institutions, particularly university graduates, is higher than the number of available job slots. This has increased the competition that the graduates undergo after successfully graduating. There has been a rise in cases where university students have pursued degrees that are not in line with their careers and interests. Several reasons have supported the context upon which a student can undertake a wrong university program. The first one is that students remain over ambitious on winning a job once they complete their studies. Being job oriented significantly impacts the course to be undertaken. Some industries tend to have higher job demands than others. The second significant reason is parental/guardian influence on the parents. Some parents believe that if a particular program is taken, then employment chances are high. Such situations do not give learners enough time to think about their dream career and interests. There are common cases where learners realize too late that they chose the wrong career or university education program. Usually, a university undergraduate program is supposed to take four years. This is not a short duration. In the second or third year of study, several learners have complained and regretted the programs they chose to take. The proposal that students should be allowed to engage in a two-year technical, business, or trade program before proceeding to the university can help.

Undertaking a two-year program before furthering studies comes with several advantages. The first one is that the learners are better positioned to get to know more about their career, strengths, weaknesses, and what they truly need in life. Although the two-year courses have been seen as ideal for people with lower academic performance and those who can hardly understand complex concepts taught at the university level, they can equally be important to bright minds as they will help them make the right academic decisions. The two-year program also plays an essential role in equipping learners with the necessary skills and experience to make them outshine at degree level. For the learners who will advance in the program they have been undertaking, they will already have the requirements to ensure that the course will be in line with the career and also his/her interests.

Whether to proceed with the four-year college or university degree or venture into two-year community college, technical and trade schools are a matter of urgency and concern. Considering the current global status since COVID-19 was reported in China, the educational sector is among the most affected areas. The regular education has been altered, and states have been forced to adopt new ways to undertake education. The resources available are not enough, making it difficult to proceed with learning through the new normal. The number of college and university graduates is far much higher than the employment slots that are made available. In this light, therefore, there is a need to act on the matter with urgency to ensure that the existing gap and difference between employment positions do not go higher than it is now. Thus, the early the better.

Synthesis of Existing Research and Connection Between Sources

The central question is: ‘are students taking the wrong courses and following the wrong academic path?’ Research has that many learners and graduates are studying the wrong subjects or subject combinations. Most of the subjects that students are involved in only offer employment and working skills. The institutions rarely consider the capabilities and interests of the learners before deciding on what to train them on and what to leave unattended. There is a significant gap between the skills in graduates and the experience that employers are looking into.

Lamanauskas & Augienė (2018) discuss the consequences of choosing the wrong careers and how one falls victim to the same. When selecting a career, it is essential first to understand what you need, the later, what you can do. The list of all pros and cons associated with a career must be taken into account. Students are the ones who will be subjected to education related to a specific career. Therefore, there should be no external forces in sighting students or even choosing a career for them. Learners should be allowed to follow what their heart desires and what they feel they are comfortable doing. The success attained in one’s satisfaction is paramount. In this light, all issues ought to be taken into account before making a decision. Four years is not a short duration. In case a person realizes a mistake in career or subject taken halfway through the program, turning back will remain a severe problem. Therefore, he/she ought to accurately make decisions about what is needed.

For instance, the University of Kent in the UK has an online platform that offers career exploration to students. The platform plays an essential in linking students’ interests and skills with their career wishing to take part in. The platform also allows learners to locate the right places where they can be attending their working experience. They are also allowed to take an academic program to parallel with a working program. Norwich university, still in the UK, on the other hand, has developed an advanced gratifying career opportunity that supports the platform. The game platform offers learners a pack of cards out of which they are supposed to choose cards used in describing their attributes and skills. Other cards are responsible for describing workplace scenarios and the unique tactics needed to ensure success in the scenario. The students’ role in this game is matching the skills together with the working scenarios that they might be thinking about. They are also required to match ways through which they can apply them. Such games make learners aware of their attributes and skills and the possible ways through which they can apply them.

Having a better understanding of the connection between career selection, duration of the study, the subjects to be undertaken, and the results to be followed is significant in several ways. The learners will have a better understanding of their skills and attributes and how they can apply them in the contemporary world to ensure that their dreams have been attained and engaged in doing what makes them happy.

My Position on the Issue

In my opinion, to make the four years in college or university meaningful to the graduates, there is a need for universities to spend a considerable time experimenting with new ways through which they can advise students about career accessibilities. I precisely support the fact that going through a two-year training in the community college, skills, or trade institution before joining university should be embraced. If a student can take part in such a program, he/she will be in a better position of understanding their attributes, capabilities, and interests. This will help them make the right decisions in their later lives. For example, a student will understand better areas where strengths and weaknesses are, avoiding routes that will later impact the lives. Some students will be ready enough and competent to be absorbed by employers, even without having gone through university education. The time spent in carrying out education studies will be channelled elsewhere. Therefore, much of the resources will be equally conserved. My judgment to support the issue is entirely based on the fact that different people have different capabilities and interests. Therefore, they should be subjected to an environment where they make decisions independently without disturbing any person.

Research Question Proposal

The necessity of a four-year college has been of great concern in recent years due to various issues surrounding its application, popularity and expenses. It is my view that a two-year community college, technical and trade schools are better than a four-year college since the transition from high school should involve critical skills training. The community colleges have always provided indispensable learning material for young adults who can then apply this in the decision-making process of determining the best career path. There has been criticism over students who choose trade school after high school instead of the prestigious four-year college degree. Many people view trade school as sub-par learning institutions fit for people with little mental capacity to grasp challenging concepts. The authors considered have influenced my research on accounts of how people who chose trade schools due to high job demand in the skilled workers’ field face social reproval.

My project shall conduct a critical analysis of available data on the issue of bias in the field of higher learning. I shall add new insight by undertaking a qualitative and quantitative analysis of data provided online and through social interactions. The other technique I shall apply is a structured literature review which shall involve analysis of a peer-reviewed study that has researched the issue at hand. The data I shall collect and the discussion I shall provide shall inform readers of problems they may not have discovered in the field of decision-making for higher learning. There are two groups involved in decision-making for higher education, these are the parents and students. Many parents and guardians have advised their children to delve into a field that has high workforce demand. For this reason, there have been many interviews and research documents developed to study the nature of decision-making in the aspect of community college of a degree-related college.

The mandate of my project shall be to support the decision of transitioning from high school education to two-year college programs then to a four-year college degree. This project shall provide critical information processing techniques and their application in the lives of high school leavers and parents. My project shall develop a proposal that information processing is a necessary procedure that extends standard decision-making capacity. The published writings we read in class have improved my mental capacity in that I am now able to devise tactics to acquire proper research. I was able to synthesis class readings into this proposal since I read articles and used them to support my thesis. My project shall broaden the thesis I have proposed by applying the techniques of quantitative, and qualitative analysis and structured literature review of various published articles about community colleges and four-year colleges.

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Final proposal

The issue in the research

The issue I will be addressing in this research is bias in the field of higher learning. In this research, I aim to show that it is okay for students to choose to transition to community colleges after high school instead of pursuing four-year college degrees.

Audience

The main audiences in my research are high school leavers, parents, and guardians. This is because they are the main parties in a position to make decisions about the transition from high school.

Context and scope of the issue

The context of my research will be society. The society has held a four-year college degree program in such high regard while disregarding community colleges, technical, and trade schools. Community, technical, and trade schools are often associated with people with little mental capacity, and students who choose then face social reapproval (Atkins & Flint, 2015). The scope of this research will be the field of higher learning where bias issues will be assessed.

Main claims

The main claims I will pursue in this research include:

1. That there is bias in the field of higher learning as four-year degree colleges are seen as more important than community, technical, and trade schools.

2. That transitioning to a community, technical, or trade school after high school is equally important as transitioning to a four-year college (Brunello & Rocco, 2017).

3. That a student transitioning to a community, technical, or trade school after high school has equal chances of being successful in life (Azeem & Omar, 2019).

Specific perspective

The specific perspective I am considering in this research is that a student’s decision to transition to a community, technical, or trade school should be supported just as much like that of a student who chooses to transition to a four-year college after high school.

References

Atkins, L., & Flint, K. J. (2015). Nothing changes: perceptions of vocational education in England. International Journal of Training Research, 13(1), 35-48. Retrieved from

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14480220.2015.1051344

Azeem, N., & Omar, M. K. (2019). STUDENTS’INTERESTS IN TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING (TVET) PROGRAM: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Muhd_Omar/publication/336768182_Students’_Interests_in_Technical_and_Vocational_Education_and_Training_TVET_Program_A_Systematic_Review/links/5db9587aa6fdcc2128ebf86b/Students-Interests-in-Technical-and-Vocational-Education-and-Training-TVET-Program-A-Systematic-Review

Brunello, G., & Rocco, L. (2017). The effects of vocational education on adult skills, employment and wages: What can we learn from PIAAC?. SERIEs, 8(4), 315-343. Retrieved from

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13209-017-0163-z

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Revision

The chosen education topic was inspired by the fact that issues and concerns arises when students realizes that they are not pursuing their career of interest after finishing their four-year college after high school transition due t poor decision making. The proposed intervention is that student should join a two-year community college, technical and trade schools. The topic is relevant to most of the young people that feel that their choice of career is not well-thought. The best process that most student audience should consider in choosing their four-year career course is through joining two-year technical/trade course that would help in decision making. I would narrow down the analysis of the influence of both students and parents on the choice of a career path and the reasons that led to the decisions including the demand for the skills in the job market.

The issue of validating the information about the different transformation after high school requires collection of data from views of multiple audiences to understand what looks more relevant. The project lacks the literature that supports the idea that joining a two-year community or technical school would result to choosing the best career that is within student’s passion and interests. The opportunity of taking short-term causes is of benefit to students because they would have additional skills to their four-year career course that increases their chances of acquiring jobs in the competitive job market. The information in the project requires additional literature to ascertain the argument but I consider the topic as knowledgeable and would have an impact in the society changing the perception about education. Parents should give students opportunity to join the two-year college and make their decision about their four-year college course.