In cub scouting, we focus on good character building. This helps give the cub scout confidence and self-reliance. This skill is necessary for everyone. Merit Badges are a great way of finding talent and interests. If you look into most merit badges you will find a requirement that focuses on career aspects. The 13 Eagle-required merit badges make a Scout a better citizen and a happier employee. The Scoutmaster should ideally work with the scout on what the scout is showing interest in for the other 8 or more. I know scouts who when they entered the "work world" or decided on a major in college, often look back to a merit badge. Not every high paying job out there requires a college degree. Eagle Scout Mike Rowe from “Dirty Jobs” fame has a YouTube channel @realmikerowe. There are quite a few jobs and careers out there that need more experience or apprenticeships then additional schooling.

LINKS: 

📺 Mike Rowe YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/realmikerowe 

🌎 Mike Rowe Website:  https://mikerowe.com/ 

🎧  The Way I Heard It... PodCast:  https://mikerowe.com/podcast/

⚜️ Note: We as adult leaders need to check our biases at the door. We need to encourage scouts to look into careers that may not require a college degree. Using the Scoutmaster's conference to find out what the scout is interested in will help their merit badge path become easier.

⚠ Correction: ScouterStan accidentally stated there were 12 Eagle-required merit badges. It’s actually 13 Eagle-required merit badges today. Cooking merit badge was added in 2013-2014. The remaining 8 additional merit badges (for a total of 21,) can be alternative Eagle-required or other non-Eagle-required merit badges. An attempt will be made to make corrections to the video and within the closed captioning.