|
Building your skillsThe best thing you can do to improve your job prospects is to give employers more and more reasons to employ you.Every time you add an additional “attraction” to your resume, you will be one step closer to getting a better job. In the past when perhaps only 10 or 20% of people got qualifications, graduates were rare, and employment for graduates was almost a certainty; but today, most people in developed countries like Australia, the USA or UK, will probably study a certificate, diploma or degree in their chosen field. After getting your “qualification”, it is tempting to stop studying, and look for work. Those who stop are really no different to most others in the workforce. If you want to get a job; or the type of job you prefer, you need to stand out from the crowd; and in education, that means getting additional qualifications which are different to what everyone else has. Too Much Specialised Study can Limit your Chances BUT Shorter Highly Specialised Courses help you Stand Out Someone who does a Masters Degree and PhD which focuses on a very rare disease or some highly specialized aspect of history may in fact be making themselves “unemployable”. When an employer looks at your 4 years of specialized study, they may well think something like the following: “This person has had no experience or knowledge of anything other than this subject for 4 years …other applicants were doing things that are more relevant to this job over those four years” or “This person really doesn’t want to work in what I’m offering. Their specialized studies indicate their interest is in a very different area”. Compare the above to someone who has undertaken several different specialized shorter courses. Perhaps they have followed their initial degree in science, for example; with a Fitness Leaders Certificate, a First Aid Certificate, a correspondence course in Horticulture and a Graduate Diploma in Management. This person has broadened their skills and knowledge and vastly increased their employability over the science graduate who has done no further studies. Specialised shorter courses with an industry application are particularly valuable, but these need to still be substantial enough to be of use to an employer (eg. The 100 hour modules and 600 hour certificates offered by Australian Correspondence Schools are ideal). Short 10 or 20 hour courses have very limited value. Success at Distance Education sends a Different Message to Employers To succeed in a Distance Education course, a person must have a high level of self motivation and persistence. When an employer sees that you have achieved a certificate, diploma or degree by distance education, they will often recognize you must have not only learnt the subject you studied, but you also must have a determination and commitment that sets you apart from graduates in classroom courses. How Important is Accreditation ? Over the past decade or so, reports have indicated a significant decrease in jobs that require degrees. Accreditation is often not nearly as important to your future career as what most people assume. Never the less, there are some advantages to undertaking studies which have some type of recognition or accreditation: and occasionally, there may be a real necessity to ensure what you are studying is accredited with a particular organisation or authority. *Accreditation or recognition by any credible organisation will indicate that a course is worth doing. If you check the “accreditation” or “recognition” standards of the organisation which is endorsing the study, you can quickly see the standards they are measuring up to; and you can be assured that in having this endorsement, the course or institution is being “watched” by an organisation outside of their own. More often than not, it doesn’t matter whether the accreditation is coming from industry, government or some other place. Wherever it comes from, it is serving the same basic purpose of providing an independent endorsement of the studies which you are considering. *Formal accreditation by an “official” body may be important when that body influences your ability to work within an industry, or doing a particular job. Example: Governments pass laws to make it illegal to practice as a solicitor or doctor unless you have a qualification accredited or recognised by that government or their agent. Professional bodies, such as a Counselling Association, may refuse membership to individuals who do not hold a qualification recognised by that organisation. If employers or clients are tending to only engage the services of members of that association, it may become necessary to gain a qualification which they recognise. *Certain types of formal accreditation may be necessary for a student to have their studies considered for funding support. In these cases, accreditation does not necessarily mean that the course is going to give you the best chance of employment upon graduation: in fact often the “funding body” and the “accreditation authority” may be linked, and could be criticised as doing little more than supporting their own system. *Having a qualification which is accredited by one government does not necessarily mean it will automatically be accepted for formal licensing (where that is required) in another state or country. |
||||||||
