I have a couple of friends who are currently looking for jobs. They are both quite competent in their fields and are in their late 30s early 40s. While they have excellent work experience, they do not have certificates or degrees in the fields in which they work. You see, their careers evolved over time. Quite naturally, their work shifted and morphed into something different. For one, it was a shift in direction, the other works in IT and as it changed, he changed with it. Now that they are looking for jobs, they find that they are not even getting interviews. I'd like to think that it's not because of their age, although that may be part of the reason. I believe the greater issue is that they don't have diplomas or degrees in the field where they want to work. Because of this, they are not even making it past the resume stage. HR departments have been taught to look for certain degrees, diplomas and certificates and if they don't see those on the resume, they discard the candidate. There is no longer any room for someone learning on the job or acquiring skills on their own. It seems that somehow we equate having a certificate with having knowledge.
Having just completed a Master's Degree in a program where if you paid your fees and completed the assignments you passed, I'm not sure that we should be putting so much faith in those pieces of paper, and essentially ignoring the human being behind the resume. Experience is worth so much more than a very expensive piece of paper.
Education has become a business and as such it requires a market. What better way to create a market than by convincing employers that candidates require a degree from your institution in order to qualify for the job? And the fact is, that it isn't even the schools that are propagating this idea. Somehow it has become a societal norm. We have become an overeducated society, massively in debt and no longer produce people who are competent to do the work they have been so over educated to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment