In an era of skyrocketing tuition fees, millions of students will find themselves unable or unwilling to finance the college package deal. Luckily, higher education doesn’t have to be delivered by a college institution.

Stop waiting for someone to hold your hand and teach you what you want or need to know. Develop a process for independently understanding complex topics.

Present conditions in many parts of the world are indicating various type of jobs are in danger of becoming obsolete. This phenomenon is called the Law of Accelerating Change, and it’s not going to slow down any time soon.

The only thing you can do to prepare for such change is to learn how to adapt to, better yet anticipate, it.

Learning new skills and knowledge on your own will quickly add tools to your tool belt, allowing you to excel and reach new heights.

Education needs to “go beyond academic knowledge to deal with the disruptions wrought by other economic shifts. To be as prepared as possible for a rapidly shifting job landscape, we need imagination so that we can try to predict what that landscape might look like.

Once you’re part of the workforce, we can use imagination to figure out how to apply our skills to the landscape, whatever it ends up looking like.

But are we taking the time to cultivate it, both in formal education and in our daily lives?

Learn how to cook. Eating at home saves time and money. You don’t have to run down the street and pay ten dollars for a sandwich and drink.

Instead, while working on a project or cleaning your space, you can make spaghetti and meatballs with enough left over for lunch or dinner the following day.

Writing. My consistent readers had a feeling I would add this bullet to the list. I write for two reasons—to better consolidate information into coherent pieces and store my thoughts and ideas from a specific period in time.

The second reason influences me to write more, as I can look back on my old self and eventually share my thoughts and ideas of today with you.

Criticizing is easy, of course. Offering solutions is hard.

The reality is that college fills many valuable roles today.

Disclaimer: The information on this POST is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional advice. The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this article is for general information purposes / educational purposes only, and to ensure discussion or debate.

Thank you … It offers young adults the chance to build hard skills (e.g. writing) and soft skills (e.g. teamwork), be part of an exciting community, live independently, get exposed to new ideas, and signal employers with an (increasingly devalued, but still valuable) college degree.

College is pretty much the only place that bundles all these good things into one convenient package deal. That’s why, despite the voluminous criticism, college as we know it won’t disappear anytime soon.

But in an era of skyrocketing tuition fees combined with widespread economic austerity, millions of students will find themselves unable or unwilling to finance the college package deal. Yet they’ll still want, and need, to gain a higher education.

Luckily, higher education doesn’t have to be delivered by a college institution. You can gain skills, community, independence, exposure, and work opportunities by piecing together a self-directed, a la carte curriculum of real-world projects. It’s a like a design-your-own-college-major program — but without college or its inflated costs.

Self-directed learning is one solution to the college debate, and certainly not the only one. But unlike other solutions, you can begin self-directed learning immediately, without spending a ton of money or waiting for policy makers or university administrators to change their ways.

And perhaps most importantly, self-directed learning builds serious personal entrepreneurship: an incredibly valuable “soft skill” in an era of rapid economic change.

Do you want to add a word or two?….

Develop a hands-on skill. Think: cooking, electrical work, sports instruction, or automotive repair.

Such skills aren’t easily offshored or automated and therefore offer an excellent part-time or fallback work option (as well as much-needed relief from a computer screen). Don’t dismiss such work as intellectually devoid.

Volunteer your way across a country. International travel can be an incredible learning experience if you take the time to immerse yourself in the local culture. Do this—and save lots of money in the process—with the websites Start a tiny business.

It doesn’t cost a lot of money to start many types of businesses — perhaps $100 — and you don’t have to think of it as a long-term venture.

Whether you succeed or fail, you’ll learn powerful lessons that most colleges can’t teach.

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Teach. Record a series of instructional videos they might land you a lead a hands-on class, tutor someone, or create a workshop for a conference.

Enhance your peer community. Face-to-face community is a vital part of higher education.

Without being formally enrolled, you can find community, local events, and workplaces. If you’re seeking a huge concentration of 18- to 25-year-olds, simply move to a college town and join an off-campus student house.

Practice, deliberately. “Deliberate practice” (DP) is the psychological process through which people attain deep expertise. Unlike regular practice, DP involves custom-tailored instruction accompanied by immediate, high-quality feedback.

You can use DP to become a better violinist, swimmer, artist, or businessperson. But more importantly, you can learn the methodology behind the process and apply it to everyday learning situations.

Build an online portfolio. Demonstrate your capacities to potential employers by creating a website that tells your story, displays your biggest accomplishments, and highlights the value you’ve created for other people.

When someone asks you what you’ve been doing with your time instead of college, point them to LinkedIn.

New ventures that may help you quantify your self-directed learning and enhance your portfolio.

These are just a few ways to start giving yourself a well-rounded higher education without college.

Do you have other suggestions?

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