The coronavirus taking its toll on college education. According to a recent Junior Achievement and Citizens (which polled 2,000 American teenagers), a quarter of high school students have put their college plans on hold, primarily due to lack of financial support from traditional familial sources. Given that tuition fees are extraordinarily oppressive, people are now looking at the worthiness of college vis-à-vis investment in the future. CEO and President of Junior Achievement, Jack Kosakowski explained:
“We’ve had this ‘college thing’ up on a pedestal. As costs have gone up, it’s forcing people to take a more realistic view.”
At this time, high-schoolers are focusing more on career training. This is understandable for three reasons:
- Exorbitant college fees
- Seeing how easy it is to lose a job because of COVID-19, irrespective of a college degree
- Having time during COVID-19 to come up with ideas to make money.
Regarding the latter, youngsters have been finding a variety of ways of making money. These include:
- bitcoin investment (this has become very attractive with the younger generation which is seeing new ways of expanding their money while gaining more control over it);
- vlogging/blogging
- video game playing for money (think Playtest Cloud)
- online tutoring for other kids.