It’s easy to criticise college these days. Wherever you look you’ll find student loan horror stories, disruptive technical changes, declining academic standards, and few graduate employment opportunities.
In a time of skyrocketing tuition, millions of students are either unwilling or unable to pay for college. And yet they’ll still need and want a higher education. Luckily, you don’t need to rely on college to get a higher education. You can gain work opportunities, exposure, independence, and skills by working out your own, self-directed portfolio of real-world projects.
More and more people are choosing self-directed learning instead of college. Here are a few ways you can begin pursuing your own education without signing up for college:
Work Hands-on
You can easily develop hands-on skills by signing up for courses or teaching yourself. These include things like cooking, automotive repair, sports instruction, or electrical work. These kinds of skills can’t easily be automated or offshored, giving you an excellent fall-back or part-time work option.
Build your portfolio online
Demonstrate your skills and capacities to future potential employers by creating your own website to tell your story, display your accomplishments, and highlight the value you create for others. When someone asks why you didn’t go to college and what you’ve been doing since high school, you can point them to this website.
Use technology to learn
Technology continues to improve our lives, and we can now learn independently online or through an app. You can even learn history online or choose from a range of other courses. Check out the Google Play college study app to get started.
Keep up with the news
There’s no question that the news can be depressing, but keeping up with what’s going on in your country and around the world is crucial if you want to consider yourself to be educated. This will allow you to discuss everything from politics to the economy, while giving you a broader understanding of the world.
Watch Ted Talks
Technology, entertainment, and design talks are fascinating talks and recorded around the world. They’re available for free online, and you can watch them whenever you want. Many of them are so riveting that you’ll want to replay them or share them with others. Check out Why 30 is not the new 20 by Meg Jay if you’re feeling like everyone else has their life together (spoiler alert: they don’t).
With the above tips, you can make sure you increase your education whether you’re having a gap-year or skipping college completely. Do you think you’ll go to college or do you plan to educate yourself in other ways? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts.
