The debate still on:
Which one has more weight: university degree or professional certification?
This question is some how tricky, and needs analytical thinking, before attempting to answer it. When we are talking about degree and certification, we are talking about apples and oranges, where both are categorized as fruit, yet each one tastes differently. Degree and certification follows the same logic: both are qualifications, yet each has its own uniqueness. Usually people keep on asking about which one is more important, to pursue.
I think answering such question, needs to consider the following sub-questions, critically:
o Define your career?
o Do you have a Thinking job (managerial) or Doing job (Clerical / support)
o At which career stage, are you now?
- Growth
- Exploration
- Establishment
- Maintenance
- Disengagement
o What are your career future plans?
- Advancement
- Status quo
- Retirement
The American Institute for Higher Education Policy report, and the Dale Carnegie Foundation report, has highlighted the following benefits, resulted from obtaining a degree:
1. Improve personal income. According to the US Census Bureau, over an adult's working life, high
school graduates earn an average of $1.2 million; associate's degree holders earn about $1.6 million
and bachelor's degree holders earn about $2.1 million (Day and Newburger, 2002).
2. Increase professional mobility, to explore flexible range of opportunities.
3. Equips with different skills and knowledge.
4. Reflects breadth of knowledge, because it covers wide spectrum concepts and topics.
5. Better consumer decision making, by making educating buying decisions.
6. Needed when advancing to managerial positions.
7. Become more open-minded.
8. Enhance knowledge of world affairs
9. Enhance social status
10. Increase economic and job security
As for features, degree has the following:
1. Issued by academic institution.
2. Does not require renewal.
3. Higher education can be pursed after.
4. Long period of time to achieve (4 to 5 years)
5. Relatively expensive, depending on the field of study, and university’s reputation.
Now, considering the other face of the coin, certifications have the following main benefit:
1. It demonstrates proficiency in a specific field – specialization, which means that you have the specific
skills and knowledge to perform a specific job.
As for features, certification has the following:
1. It could result in having a job faster than a degree, but certification by it self is considered as a barrier
for future advancement, if not accompanied with a degree, for managerial position, for example.
2. Short period of time to complete, compared to degree’s period.
3. Needs to be renewed if any update took place, in its body of knowledge.
4. Helpful if working on technical level.
5. Granted by specialized companies / authorities.
6. Continuous update is needed, for validity.
Although it is a simple question yet puzzling because no agreed upon answer, so far.
I believe that both of them complement each other: degree warrant breadth (Horizontal) knowledge, and certification warrants depth (vertical) knowledge.
Over to you, what do you think: degree or certification?
I hope this blog will help you finding the answer for such question. Until my next blog, have a great day.
Nizar Baidoun
Which one has more weight: university degree or professional certification?
This question is some how tricky, and needs analytical thinking, before attempting to answer it. When we are talking about degree and certification, we are talking about apples and oranges, where both are categorized as fruit, yet each one tastes differently. Degree and certification follows the same logic: both are qualifications, yet each has its own uniqueness. Usually people keep on asking about which one is more important, to pursue.
I think answering such question, needs to consider the following sub-questions, critically:
o Define your career?
o Do you have a Thinking job (managerial) or Doing job (Clerical / support)
o At which career stage, are you now?
- Growth
- Exploration
- Establishment
- Maintenance
- Disengagement
o What are your career future plans?
- Advancement
- Status quo
- Retirement
The American Institute for Higher Education Policy report, and the Dale Carnegie Foundation report, has highlighted the following benefits, resulted from obtaining a degree:
1. Improve personal income. According to the US Census Bureau, over an adult's working life, high
school graduates earn an average of $1.2 million; associate's degree holders earn about $1.6 million
and bachelor's degree holders earn about $2.1 million (Day and Newburger, 2002).
2. Increase professional mobility, to explore flexible range of opportunities.
3. Equips with different skills and knowledge.
4. Reflects breadth of knowledge, because it covers wide spectrum concepts and topics.
5. Better consumer decision making, by making educating buying decisions.
6. Needed when advancing to managerial positions.
7. Become more open-minded.
8. Enhance knowledge of world affairs
9. Enhance social status
10. Increase economic and job security
As for features, degree has the following:
1. Issued by academic institution.
2. Does not require renewal.
3. Higher education can be pursed after.
4. Long period of time to achieve (4 to 5 years)
5. Relatively expensive, depending on the field of study, and university’s reputation.
Now, considering the other face of the coin, certifications have the following main benefit:
1. It demonstrates proficiency in a specific field – specialization, which means that you have the specific
skills and knowledge to perform a specific job.
As for features, certification has the following:
1. It could result in having a job faster than a degree, but certification by it self is considered as a barrier
for future advancement, if not accompanied with a degree, for managerial position, for example.
2. Short period of time to complete, compared to degree’s period.
3. Needs to be renewed if any update took place, in its body of knowledge.
4. Helpful if working on technical level.
5. Granted by specialized companies / authorities.
6. Continuous update is needed, for validity.
Although it is a simple question yet puzzling because no agreed upon answer, so far.
I believe that both of them complement each other: degree warrant breadth (Horizontal) knowledge, and certification warrants depth (vertical) knowledge.
Over to you, what do you think: degree or certification?
I hope this blog will help you finding the answer for such question. Until my next blog, have a great day.
Nizar Baidoun
Interesting points Nizar...
ReplyDeleteI do think, though, that the nature of the work itself is the deciding factor in the decision to pursue a degree or some sort of professional certification. If the work is complex, highly intricate and requires more out-of-the-box thinking, a degree tends to provide a more well-rounded background for these types of positions. If the work is technical, but somehow repetitive in nature, certifications tends to fit the bill for most of these sorts of jobs.
I like the topic...intresting..i support the sentence in your writeup, i believe it explain it all
ReplyDelete"I believe that both of them complement each other: degree warrant breadth (Horizontal) knowledge, and certification warrants depth (vertical) knowledge."