In what I hope will become a tradition I’ll give a brief run down of a brief post…
First I talk about my Dad and how he influenced me in my view of exams. Then I wander off into a dark corner about qualifications before finally coming out to a small summary:
They’re pointless (unless you want a new job).
Read on to what a laughingly call the good stuff…
When I was young I discovered that exams and qualifications are the most important thing in the world (according to my Dad). As I got older I realised that they’re only important to get you to the next level. Then you need qualifications in that too. Then I entered the workplace and discovered that if I got a piece of paper to say I was good at something my salary would go up.
So guess what I did.
After a while I realised the obvious – certifications/qualifications are good at giving you a nice feeling and they give benchmarks to potential employers about how far you are along in your profession.
But in actual fact they’re of little practical value.
I suspected this when I was a techie but confirmed it once I moved into Learning (to become a Learning Geek). Think about it. A curriculum for a course that lasts 1 year must be written more than a year before right? So by the time you start it’s already out of date. Are you sure you want to do that qualification?
I see little value in qualifications nowadays. I think the value is in being able to be flexible, to be adaptable and to be smart in getting the information you need when you need it. Learning shouldn’t be tied down to qualifications, it should be freed.
Now if someone came up with a qualification on maximising your informational search capabilities then that’d be a different story…
“Hey – I’m a certified super fast learner, give me a job…”
