Education and Work Experience
There is no doubt that both higher education and work experience are important parts of education for employability. Many students want to go university and graduate with a degree which can fill their resume. However I believe that the work experience has better efficiency than the degree, particularly in terms of employment activity.
First of all, work experience during higher education, and in particular that related to study, has a positive effect on employment activity because experience is what the majority of employers want. For example, we can easily find that many of the job or career advertisements emphasize 3 to 4 years experience in the particular field. According to my experience, I also preferred experience over education when I tried to designate new members as my team. I selected 7 applicants who have some experience out of 120 candidates applying for the position in order that I wanted to start the project immediately. Companies want to save both time and money by choosing experienced employees.
The other major reason is that the work experience allows students to learn about the world of work in a real working situation. They can get a good idea of what work is like in their placement and it help them to decide about their career. It is very useful even though they find that the field does not match them, as they can quickly change their pathway based on the experience.
On the other hand, there are the types of jobs that require higher education over experience such as university professors in specific fields of study, for example: mathematics, physics, and chemistry etc. We can easily find that many young professors who do not have work experience but are highly educated and their knowledge is what is needed in their particular expertise. Therefore, in the specific part of job, higher education is more important than work experience. However, in the wider world of job, work experience is more important than higher education.
To sum
First of all, work experience during higher education, and in particular that related to study, has a positive effect on employment activity because experience is what the majority of employers want. For example, we can easily find that many of the job or career advertisements emphasize 3 to 4 years experience in the particular field. According to my experience, I also preferred experience over education when I tried to designate new members as my team. I selected 7 applicants who have some experience out of 120 candidates applying for the position in order that I wanted to start the project immediately. Companies want to save both time and money by choosing experienced employees.
The other major reason is that the work experience allows students to learn about the world of work in a real working situation. They can get a good idea of what work is like in their placement and it help them to decide about their career. It is very useful even though they find that the field does not match them, as they can quickly change their pathway based on the experience.
On the other hand, there are the types of jobs that require higher education over experience such as university professors in specific fields of study, for example: mathematics, physics, and chemistry etc. We can easily find that many young professors who do not have work experience but are highly educated and their knowledge is what is needed in their particular expertise. Therefore, in the specific part of job, higher education is more important than work experience. However, in the wider world of job, work experience is more important than higher education.
To sum