I don't know why everyone gets so bent out of shape on the 4 year degree requirement and takes it so personally. It is a standard that has been set, period. This is no different than most industries, a 4 year degree, no matter what the field is required for employment. It is required to be an officer in the military, and it doesn't matter the degree. When my wife managed a horse barn they required a degree. She is an english major...
Nobody would argue that having a degree makes you a better pilot, but the industry, as well as many other industries, has chosen that level of standard as means for employment. Think having an ATP issued during a type rating makes you a better pilot? We spend too much time bitching about the rules instead of trying to meet or exceed the standard.
I will also say that it is extremely ironic to have people complain about the 4 year degree requirement when we are in the mist of fighting for high wages and keeping a professional standard level of hours and experience. Instead of doing that, use the 4 year degree to prove that we are well educated, well qualified, and well deserving of professional wages.
Because this isn't that type of profession. Being a pilot is a trade. The problem is that we have degraded the concept of a trade in this country. A trade is just as important as a degree but somehow we have decided tradesmen are worth less than those with a degree. Our skill set requires actual experience that can't be found in textbooks. Knowledge is
NOT what is lacking, its experience that can only be found on the job
DOING the trade. "Generally" anyone can be taught how to do the most basic functions of our skill (Hell they taught me to fly helicopters). Knowing the right time to use it takes years of experience.
It takes years to become a master tradesman, much longer than it takes to become degreed even at a master level. But somehow the tradesman has been belittled. A tradesman focuses on becoming the best at a particular skill. A degree is someone's idea (not necessarily knowledgeable in the specific field of study) of a "well rounded" educated individual. Our collegiate system has become a bastardization of knowledge and in reality is a indoctrination camp for ideas that have no place in the real world. And usually requires studies in areas that have no basis in the skill required. And still after all that work in earning that degree still don't have the skills to do anything useful in the industry.
Whereas the average pilot with a fresh pilot certificate generally has the basic knowledge to do the job but not the experience to make the right decisions. Thus our "Apprentice" or "Journeyman" with his/her skill can learn from a master tradesman. That is a skill based system. And leads to experts in a specific skill set.
Case in point every Computer Science degree who came to work for me right out of college usually needed nearly 6 months of retraining to learn how to work in the real world of computer technology and usually had their heads full of useless ideas that would never work in the real industry. Very early in my IT career I worked at Martin Marietta (before it was Lockheed Martin). We were doing computer upgrades of an early windows version. I forgot to remove the rem statement that would launch Windows from the autoexec.bat file. Simple mistake with an easy fix. Well the employee in question was the programming department head who freaked out because she didn't know how to get into windows from a command prompt and came screaming around the corner that I had lost all her files (I was in the next cubical over). This was a woman with a
masters degree in computer science and years of experience working with a Unix command line.
We were literally writing the code for the space shuttle program. But she lost her chit becuase she didn't know how to use a MS Dos command line.
A degree does not give you the experience to make good decisions in the cockpit. Only time learning from a more experienced pilot will give you the tools and experience to make the right decisions. You can't get that from a degree program.
I took a year of a aerospace science degree program. I wouldn't get in an airplane with some of those "professors"on a VFR day just to stay in the pattern.