The Choice Between Skills V/S Degree
|By- Alok Parekh|
It is time for some positive thinking this #TerrificTuesday by looking into the choice that many are asked to make in life: Skills or Degree, Experience or Education?
I have been hearing the same thing since years: 'Skills... Not Degree'. Definitely, skills and degree go hand in hand. But according to me, skills are important than any degree, period.
Skills help people achieve their goals. Many people having a degree don't necessarily have the skills to complement that degree. A degree is just a piece of paper whereas the skills are a myriad of qualities which cannot be evaluated on such kind of papers. People learn new skills based on their real-life experiences. Skills bring people one step closer to their goals. It is definitely the degree that helps in getting a job but without skills, one can never grow further or develop themselves.
Skills are of utmost importance in a job. When stepping into an organization, people are not offered jobs solely based on their degree, but also skills like communication skills, management skills, leadership skills and many more. Skills attract the clients and employers. They serve like an X-factor.
Another point suggesting that skills are more important and helpful than a particular degree is that many great people in history were skilled and the profound work they did was the proof of their excellence and unprecedented acumen rather than a piece of paper. Degree might just give us a platform but skills will help to achieve the impossible and hold a given position. For example, talking about some of the most successful people from all over the world like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs achieved success due to their skills. Some even failed at the academics they were pursuing.
Now, coming to the situation of engineering graduates, they have their degrees and have scored very well yet remain unemployed due to their lack of certain skills. Many people have recently lost their jobs due to the ongoing pandemic and once we break free from its clutches, various other multi-national companies will start hiring people, based on what the employees can bring to the table and not by just looking at what degree they hold, in a bid to recover their losses quickly and persuade clients to do business with them.
On a concluding note, skills have always played a primordial role than any degree certification. People can push their limits courtesy of the dexterity they possess.
Therefore, I humbly request all the parents to not just force their children to study and pursue academics that they aren’t interested in. Not all kids can easily learn and grasp. They need their time to discover what they are passionate about. To compare them with kids who can consistently score well is an unspeakable horror.
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