Skills Speaks Louder than Degrees

Today, the corporate world seeks for young, talented employees who not only hold a degree but also has skills fit for the job. In India, we place too much emphasis on what is often just a piece of paper, instead of the knowledge or skills one should acquire to earn it. Education is important but it does not guarantee us a job in our chosen field. We learn a lot of theories during foundational education, but applying them to practical work requires skills.

In our lives, we come across many people who are privileged with an absolute power or fame and made us believe that they must have inherent the same felicity because of their education or degree. Since childhood, we are forcefully compelled that we need to have a higher education if we want to succeed in our lives. That’s the reason we indulge so much in high-level education programs and other major degrees. As we get older and gain some life and work experiences, we realize the fact that this isn’t a complete truth. The people who have degrees and earned a good place in studies don’t mean that they are the skilled as well.

Our current curriculum is 70% theory 30% practical, thus obliterating any scope for skill development. For instance, we have automobile engineers who can explain in 15 steps how to change a car tyre but may never have done it physically. In fact, one of the biggest problems MNSc face while recruiting in our county is the lack of necessary industry relevant skill set in professionals, even among those with high academic merit.

A degree is nothing but the certified documentation that proves you have accomplished something in education. However, there are many individuals that are inborn with skills but may not manage to gain the degrees. Still, they have accomplished very well in their lifetime. Similarly, every degree holder isn’t necessarily to be a skilled one as well. This major factor has encouraged many big companies to do something called Skilled Based Hiring as an alternative to hiring based on college degrees.

The psychology behind skills having better productivity is that skills satisfy a deeper curiosity. The feeling you get when you satisfy your curiosity, having spent a lot of time and energy in trying to find an answer or a solution, is highly gratifying. Albert Einstein famously said, “I have no special talents… I am only passionately curious.”

Degree and skill are two sides of the same coin. Degrees take you to places and skills help you stay there and take you forward. You will find many people who’ll say degrees don’t matter and skills are all that it takes, well, what if you don’t get an opportunity to showcase those skills? Now, look at Mark Zuckerberg he didn’t have a degree. Well, he dropped out of Harvard. And if you reached Harvard in 1st place, that means you were special and good from the start. For normal people like us, we need validation. And there is no better validation than a degree.

So the degree is necessary, but not enough.