An Inopportune Education

Monty Python's value of academia.

In a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, author, and research fellow at MIT’s Sloan School’s Centre for Digital Business, Michael Shrage extols the virtues of applicable skills over levels of higher-education in making oneself more attractively employable. Though stopping well short of stating that post-secondary levels of education are worthless, Schrage describes an ever widening gap between success in the classroom and success in the career path.

“...Education is a misleading-to-malignant proxy for economic productivity or
performance. Knowledge may be power, but "knowledge from college" is neither
predictor nor guarantor of success. Growing numbers of informed observers
increasingly describe a higher education "bubble" that makes a college
and/or
university education a subprime investment for too many attendees.”

Such an assertion, as that made by Schrage, is not wholly unbelievable. Up until even the mid-90s, job prospects for post-secondary grads were not bad by any stretch of the imagination. Now, however, it seems almost rare that a Canadian University grad will not complete an additional form of training or education beyond their initial undergrad. Furthermore, what it is particularly telling, and is entirely related to the notion of an education “bubble,” is that much of this additional training will be done in what are often more practical and applicable College programs, particularly those that are more closely tied to a field of choice. Within the education realm, Schrage posits that:

'...alumni networks may be more economically valuable than whatever one studied
in class. "Where you went" may prove professionally more helpful than "what
you
know."’

Of course, and not in disagreement with Schrage’s argument, perhaps it’s not the institution, but the student that is creating this unemployable “bubble.” Whereas the boomer generation, which found employable gold in the cultivation of a bachelor degree, may have been more prepared to apply their education to their existent skills and make their own way in the world, this (aka. my) generation maybe less independently trailblazing, and more expectant of things to come through simply following the same educational process as their parents. Heck, even the former President of my alma mater used to tell crowds of first years during Welcome Week that among the more important things they’d learn at school is what they learn outside of the classroom. Though these words may have been more in reference to important life lessons and relationships, they could also very easily apply to getting involved in extracurricular activities that hone your skills and give you something to talk about later.

Either way, this is something to seriously consider, especially for those of us looking towards our careers and especially for those of us looking towards our careers with a decent bachelor of the arts background and making our way through MBA programs (both of which are referred to somewhat gloomily in the second paragraph... doh!).