There’s always a good discussion to be had about the worth of credentials earned in education against real skills acquired in the workplace. The true answer probably lies somewhere in the middle. There absolutely is value in taking the educational route, and managing to earn yourself a qualification that takes you a few steps forward in the early job prospects. For some specific and specialised roles, the paper credentials are actually essential, but this does not apply to every job on the market.
However, the skills you hone in the workplace are often the thing that actually gets you moving up the ladder within a company more than what it says on a piece of paper. Practical learning is extremely valuable in any job that relies on improvement over time, such as trades with your hands or in public service, where you may have shadowed a more senior member of staff for your first few weeks or months in the role.
In this article, we’ll bring you up to speed on the true value of educational credentials for your job prospects, as well as the positives about getting your skills in place on the job, too. We’ll discuss how to find the balance between the two different sides of the coin and give you as much knowledge as possible, so you can make the right choices in your employment journey.
What does education bring to your job prospects?
It won’t come as any surprise to learn that certain professions require specialised education. If you want to pursue a career in the legal sphere or in medicine, you cannot begin to take a step on the career ladder without any formal education. These are the types of roles where it’s not even possible to get your foot in the door as an administrative assistant and work your way through the company, thanks to your skills.
Additionally, there are indeed certain educational requirements that everyone needs in order to be well employed for the remainder of their life. It is common for big companies to require a high school diploma, and in particular, a passing grade in both English and Math. You may be wondering why those subjects in particular, and it comes down to the simple skills that many jobs require employees to use daily: counting money, taking notes, and being able to read instructions (which can also include numerical requirements).
But overall, the real unspoken benefits of having a college degree to any employer are actually in the wide range of skills that higher-education learning brings to the prospective candidate. College learning requires you to undertake group projects, working together with people you may not have anything in common with. It also requires independent learning, which teaches problem-solving that is valuable in the workplace. These soft skills make a college graduate very attractive to an employer, as they’re hard to teach quickly.
What jobs teach you the necessary skills in the role?
There is a lot to be said for learning on the job, and there are professions in which you can only improve by doing the work itself. Electricians and plumbers often get their start by becoming apprentices with a long-serving employer who can teach them exactly what they need to know to get their certifications on the job and be a great first step towards gaining the experience they’d need to set up their own firm. That being said, plumbers and electricians will often still need a passing grade in English and Math because they need to take accurate measurements and give competitive quotes for their work, too.
Most jobs, no matter the discipline, are something that people get better at over time. You can start as an office assistant and learn exactly how the business works and what your role is in making it tick perfectly, which gives you the skills to go after an office manager job in the future – you don’t need a qualification to be able to move up the ladder in this particular type of role. Another example is in marketing: starting as an assistant will teach you the ropes of what marketing is, giving you the experience at understanding the printing requirements, the basics of branding, and also in consumer research. Whilst these skills are taught and amplified with a qualification, many people can start at the entry level and work their way up. You don’t need a qualification to become a marketing manager, but you may well decide at that point in your career to get the qualification that could push you to the executive level of the business.
Is there a good balance to be found between the two factors?
As you will have hopefully gathered by now, there is definitely a balance for most jobs between having the paper credentials and applying real skills in order to move up the career ladder. Some people who worry that they don’t have the greatest of high-school records, but they’re confident they could do the job if they got their foot in the door, have been looking at ways to create a college transcript that can reinforce their good points to get themselves employed for the first time.
Most jobs will only ask for your educational credentials at their first point of contact. Only in specialised roles will you need to continue providing your paperwork throughout your career. Once you have the experience of doing the job you want to do, it becomes so much easier to continue making progress in that field and get the next job: whether it’s a promotion within the current company, or you’re looking to move on to snatch that next big role and improved paycheck.
This is especially true for working in the trades or even in public service. People who start at the entry-level role for firefighting or in local municipality administration will learn exactly what they need to do the job just by walking in the door, and so long as they have the required mandatory high school graduation, they will be able to succeed in taking a role that needs learning on the job.
Ultimately, every hiring department will be looking for a different combination of factors when filling a role, and so by reading the job listing, you’ll be able to ensure you are prepared to demonstrate you meet their criteria. You should never go for a job that you don’t have the necessary qualifications for, but you can always work your way up in a company from an entry-level job.
(DISCLAIMER: The information in this article does not necessarily reflect the views of The Global Hues. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability or completeness of any information in this article.)
Must Read:
- Your Custom Home – Careful Considerations
- Innovative Interior Design Trends To Refresh Your Home
- How to Choose Living Room Furniture That Stands Up to Active Lifestyles
