Job fulfillment high on list of graduates' desires

By PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI

June 16, 2000 Web posted at: 2:03 PM EDT (1803 GMT)

DETROIT, Michigan (Detroit Free Press) -- Meet the Class of 2000.

They're nearly 3 million strong nationwide as they head into the world this month. And, with all the optimism of youth, they have some big expectations of what they'll find.

Their primary concern? Finding a fulfilling job.

The high-tech jobs of the new millennium, working with computers or in engineering, don't impress them. They're too dull, too narrowly focused for today's teenagers, according to a recent statewide poll. Medical fields and teaching are the teens' top choices.

"They want to be Dr. Spock, not Mr. Spock," said Ed Sarpolus, vice president of EPIC/MRA, a Lansing polling company that surveyed 450 Michigan teens. "These people want to interact."

That's not to say they're immune to the seduction of money.

The vast majority expect to earn at least $30,000 a year in their first job. Nearly a quarter expect to make more than $45,000.

To put that in perspective, it means the students expect to make as much in their first job as the median U.S. worker currently makes. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the median weekly salary of all full-time workers is $575 a week, or about $30,000 a year. The number is lower for those without college: $363 a week for those without a high school diploma and $502 a week for those with a diploma but no college. It's higher -- $891 a week -- for those with a college degree.

The poll was conducted between May 31 and June 5 for a consortium of business, education and government leaders led by Ferris State University. The group is trying to find out why more students aren't enrolling in high-need, high-paying programs such as health care.

Poll results suggest the best way to encourage students to enter those fields is to encourage their parents.

The students said their career choice was most influenced by the adults in their lives. The more advice they got, the more likely they were to have followed it.

The No. 1 job parents advised their teens NOT to pursue was the military.

Shannon Moye said his father, James Moye, wasn't crazy about his son's plan to join the Marines after he graduated this June.

"He would like to see me do anything else," Shannon Moye, 18, said.

He plans a career in law enforcement, and the Marines have promised that he'll be a military policeman. He plans to go to college after the Marines.

He had plenty of options after high school. He earned a 3.3 grade point average at Crockett Technical High School in Detroit. And he's a talented graphic artist who won the North American International Auto Show's poster contest last year.

He was also an All-City and All-State track star. He said he was offered several track scholarships, but even that didn't change his mind.

"I knew when I got out of high school I wanted to do something outstanding, and the Marines are the most elite organization in the world," he said. "I can go to college, but it just wouldn't have fulfilled me like the service would."

Unlike Moye, however, 88 percent of the teenagers interviewed say they are going to college straight from high school. Most, 67 percent, said they would attend a 4-year college.

"It's a confirmation ...that the students of Michigan really look to very traditional universities and university education as the key to career options," said Ferris State President William Sederberg.

Stephen Soviar II, 18, is among the minority who chose the 2-year option. He'll attend Macomb Community College as a first step toward law school.

"Hopefully, ...it will give me a chance to mature as a person and academically," he said. "And I can get most of the basic, core classes out of the way."

Soviar has been accepted at Wayne State, but said he didn't feel he was ready for university-level classes.

"I don't want to go there and throw my money away," he said. "I thought about it a lot, and think this is the best thing for me, to help me grow."

The Warren Cousino High School graduate also has $5,000 in scholarship money and the use of a new Corvette for a week. The awards were presented to him as the top performer in the Winning Futures program sponsored by Hamilton Chevrolet in Warren for his presentation on where he expects to be in five years.

"The scholarship money will pay for my two years there, and I can get a chance to raise my grades up and hopefully get a full-ride scholarship to either Wayne State University or Michigan State," Soviar said, noting that he graduated with a 2.8 grade-point average.

Only 6 percent of students polled said they were going to work directly from high school. But if the Class of 2000 is anything like the Class of 1999, 22 percent will go straight to work, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That high school students overestimate their future learning is also illustrated by this sobering statistic:

Only about half of those who began college in the 1980s and early 1990s earned a degree.

That leaves a gap between what young people know and what they need to know to find a good job.

Between 70 and 80 percent of jobs require some form of post-secondary education, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The state is trying to steer more students into 2-year, job-oriented programs in anticipation of a need for these types of workers. But the poll showed most Michigan students think otherwise.

"State policy has its work cut out," Sederberg said. "The enrollment in 2-year schools is dropping, and the enrollment in 4-year schools is going up."

Nick Barber used to think going to college was the only option until he started working at QC Tech in Madison Heights, an auto parts supplier. He started at the bottom, sweeping up, and worked his way into more technical jobs. He also began taking classes in the manufacturing technology program at Oakland Technical Center's Royal Oak campus.

Combined, the two have given the 17-year-old Clawson High School student the experience to go straight to a good job.

"I always thought college was the only way to go. Then I started working here and realized it's really not," Barber said.

In high school, the busy teen split his time among work in the mornings three days a week at QC Tech, classes in the morning two days a week at OTC and daily classes at Clawson High.

Deciding to work after graduation was an easy choice for Barber, though he says his mother wants him to go to college.

And at QC Tech, where he'll continue working after graduation, Barber's boss has encouraged him to sign up for an apprenticeship, in which he'd take classes at Macomb Community College -- paid for by the company -- while working a 40-hour week. Barber is leaning toward that option.

" It just seemed ideal for me. I could have a good job making good money right out of high school."

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