Is a Diploma Better Than a Badge?

 We all are beginning to realize that we can't just walk off the stage at graduation and land ourselves a job. We do not stand out anymore with just a bachelors. Employers want to see experience, badges/certifications and trainings of all kinds. What good really is our bachelors? There are more and more trade school out there and more certifications that help you specialize in a certain area.  What people learn in school is often not enough. It often takes the extra badge that creates the bridge, over into the other side of a sought for employee.

According to The New York Times, " badges spotlight skills that do not necessarily show up on traditional skill verification documents. Unlike regular degree programs, which provide a macro education on a general topic (say, Computer Science), badges certify micro-based competency in a very specific skill (say, JavaScript)"

I recently read a great article titled Why Get a Pricey Diploma When a Badge Will Do. It goes into depth about why badges are seen as much better avenues for obtaining a job. Also as I have been researching information and how it has effected the economy, I think this topic and it are totally related. There now are not many needs for mundane human labor tasks that technology has provided an escape for. More then ever there are less jobs available to the "ordinary public" people who don't specialize. A study done in 2005 showed that in 2005, 70,000 jobs were lost due to music downloads and music innovation. It used to take 4 people to run a camera, and now it only takes one. While there are countless benefits from information innovation, there seems to be some downfalls. It shows up in our schools, with our work, in our disciplines etc.

I, like many of you might be, am a little nervous about leaving school. I feel like I have a general education down but no specialized field. Our education is not hands on--its face down, into our books. How is this really helping us in the future? Not only do we have a rigorous general education but we must gain experience outside of school along with obtain certifications. Don't you think it should be all combined into one? Why waste effort on the non-important stuff? Is the economy going to continually fall because of lack of specialization within the general public?