Although many people believe that apprenticeships are a good way to learn the skills needed for

future employment, it is clear that knowledge gained in college is much more flexible, and income earned
with a college degree is far greater.
College education provides knowledge that can be applied in a variety of situations and an
continuously-changing world . In their essay "Apprenticeship Programs in a Changing Economic
World.", economics and education professor, Eric A Hanushek and Ludger Woessman state how
restrictive apprenticeships are, “Early employment gains with vocational training may lead to later
problems when specific skills become obsolete and workers lack the ability to adjust to a changed
economic environment.” The demands and conditions of society will change, making the knowledge and
skills that apprentices learn become outdated. Apprentices can only learn the skills required for the
particular profession they have selected, which does not guarantee that they will have the abilities for
other occupations they will soon apply for if they fail the apprenticed job. As was also stated in the essay,
there is convincing evidence that as people get older, the initial labor-market benefit of vocational
education over general education declines. Older workers with a vocational degree are less likely to be
employed than older workers with a college degree. The main explanation for this situation is that over
the career, specific occupational skills become obsolete faster than general skills if they are not updated
by on-the-job training. Vocational workers have a specific set of skills and are therefore less flexible than
workers with a educational degree.
Obtaining a college degree or higher education degree guarantees people a higher paying job.
Those with professional degrees tend to earn the most, followed by those with doctoral degrees and lower
degrees, and those without college degrees or those who choose apprenticeship over college, are those
who make the least money, according to a chart that reports the median salary of people in the United
States based on levels of education. Not only do people with college degrees make more money, but they
also make twice as much in a week as interns do. Therefore, it is apparent that a college education is
crucial for earning a significant amount of money, which leads to overall happiness and stability.
However, it should be acknowledged that apprenticeships do offer early trainings and heads-ups
before entering the “real” working environment. “Beginning in 10th grade, students rotate among
employersi, industry organizations and school for three to four years of training and mentoring.” (Source
A), although this early methodology of learning might be beneficial for the chosen occupation, it still
holds a lot of drawbacks. Moreover, Switzerland is a dominant country in terms of politics, history, and
geography, therefore using it as an example would be prejudiced as it already has a good fundamental
economy. If apprenticeships are applied to less-developed countries like India or Vietnam, the results will
not be the same.