In my experience, most recent college graduates are effectively useless anyway. I say that as a once-recent graduate. It's often thought, incorrectly, that uni

In my experience, most recent college graduates are effectively useless anyway. I say that as a once-recent graduate. It's often thought, incorrectly, that university teaches you how to do a certain job. People go to university to learn how to become an X. University isn't supposed to teach you how to do a job... it's supposed to teach you how to think critically. Along the way you learn, in varying depth, knowledge about specific fields of study, but that's not the same as learning a job. Recent graduates are often immature (barely 21, who can blame them), limited in both depth and breadth of knowledge, and inexperienced. Most new hires have to be trained within industry for at least several months if not longer before they become productive for any business/organization. Having students work part time, or preferably full time jobs while attending university would be a net gain for all of the above. Working a job teaches teamwork and responsibility. Employees gain life experience, learn skills (learning a skill is the point, not what the skill is), discipline, and how to interact with others professionally and maturely. Basically everything university is not capable of teaching. Working a job is complementary to an education, under this idea. The notion that university should be completed in four years needs to change - maybe it should take 6-8 years after all. The quality of an average graduate would be immense, and future earning abilities would be equally increased.