Credit: Preston Fore
Gen Z’s relationship with higher education has never been more fraught. Soaring tuition costs and a brutal entry-level job market have left many young people questioning whether getting a degree was worth it at all.
But Valerie Capers Workman, who served as vice president of people at Tesla, has a sharply different message for the graduating class of 2026: Don’t buy the noise. This comes even as her former boss, Elon Musk, is part of the chorus of powerful voices casting doubt on college.
“Do not let anyone, not a tech founder, not a headline, not a podcast host, convince you that your education was a waste,” Workman said last week at the Defining the Future conference at California State University, San Bernardino. “It was not. It is more valuable today than it has ever been.”