Are 19-Year-Olds Mature Enough for the Workforce?
Are 19-year-olds mature enough to join the workforce? (Spoiler: Yes, if we stop treating them like children.)
A question I get when I tell people about pega6’s one-year career accelerators is,
“22-year-old college graduates aren’t mature enough to join the workforce, so how will pega6’s 19-year-old graduates be mature enough?”
Here’s what I tell them:
The issue isn’t that 22‑year‑olds aren’t physiologically capable of maturity. It’s that American universities have become an institutionalized form of arrested development.
We send 18-year-olds into an environment designed to extend their adolescence by four more years. The result? 22-year-olds who are really just 18-year-olds in adult clothing.
I usually give two examples to show that immaturity is environmental, not chronological.
the olden days
First, I talk about how, 70-80 years ago, most 18-year-olds went right into the workforce from high school. And I don’t just mean steel-working jobs. I mean white-collar office jobs too.
And those 18-year-olds did just fine.
but how??? they were only itty bitty widdle 18-year-old babies!!!
Because they were placed in professionalizing environments. Surrounded BY adults. Expected to BE adults. And so they BECAME adults.
They didn’t need a four-year buffer. They rapidly matured because that’s what they saw going on AROUND them, and that’s what was expected OF them.
And it’s not like homo sapiens have evolved over the last 75 years such that we’re now biologically incapable of maturity by the age of 19. Put them in the right environment, and they will step up.
the military
The military TODAY is yet another case in point.
Tens of thousands of 18-year-olds enlist every year. Within 12 months, they are far more mature than their college-going peers.
And the reason is simply that they’re surrounded by responsibility, adult standards, and guidance.
the pega6 way
This is precisely why we structured pega6 as a maturing, professionalizing environment. No frat-party culture, no sleeping in, no coddling, no whining.
students are expected to act like adult professionals at all times
And we surround them by situations and people that reinforce that behavior. The result? 19-year-olds who make college graduates seem like tweens.
Because, in the end, the question isn’t, “Can 19-year-olds act like professionals?” It’s, “Will we treat them like professionals?”
