Education is portable and broadly applicable to learning NEW things that can fit into, or add onto, the framework that has been carefully built, but it almost always requires refinement/shaping in order to fit the needs of particular demands in the workplace. Training, on the other hand, is about learning particular tasks, protocols, or skills-- which may or may not have any other application or use.
Thanks for the reply HowlerKarma. I agree, education really is important as a tool that helps create this frame around that which we will eventually pursue in our lives. Whatever type of education one receives is almost always useful in more ways than recognized. Like you said, TRAINING is specific and most often internships, from those that I've talked to, are a useless experience when it comes to the real work force. But why then, do companies look for this type of check mark on an application. I think it all comes down to work ethic. There are different types of people in the world. Those that meet educational standards and are considered "smart," and those that are "smart" but also busy themselves with being constantly involved and motivated. This is really general of course, but what I'm getting at is that employers look for several characteristics. Education (usually a college degree and how well one performs), People skills (being able to communicate and come off as a well rounded conversational individual), and work ethic (a major factor companies want in a new hire, from which they look at not how well you did in college but WHAT you did while you were there. This is where internships, clubs, work studies, all come in handy.)
To summarize, I feel that while the TRAINING that you speak of seems like a falsified shift from education to companies simply becoming lazy in hiring pre-trained employees, the employees more often than not still need to become trained for their specific area of work. My sister held an internship with a major contracting company as a civil engineer after her Freshman year of college. Because of her efforts and her people skills, she managed to hold this position for the next 3 years, becoming a paid intern which originally wasn't in the contract. After college when she went to enter the real workforce, she was quickly picked up by another company where she does nothing that applied to her internship. Instead she holds an inspection-type job where she's traveling and representing the company by meeting with people and what not. Basically, her years of internships were not seen as job training, she still went through a period of training with this new company, but the internships were enough experience to show that she has both the work ethic and the people skills to be sought after in the real world.
Also, with a later post you mentioned stressing that high school students do whatever they can to put themselves above others to be attractive to prestigious colleges. This is similar to getting work experience while in school. It's not to gain any sort of training that will help in the real world. It's simply to stay ahead and stand out from the crowd. That's really what it comes down to. College or not, work experience or not, if one can stand above the crowd and distinguish themselves as more useful than other candidates, then that person will be hired.
