What Is More Important - Qualifications Or Experience?

Recruitment and academic experts still debate this age-old question. What do you think – which is more important qualifications or experience?

With the rising cost of education, most people think twice about pursuing higher studies. On the other hand, some employers complain that university graduates are not suitably prepared for the workplace. So, is work experience the best attribute for employers or do educational qualifications still highlight the best candidate for the job? We will check this out:

Qualifications are more important

Most recruiters advertise positions in their companies specifying that a university degree is required to hold the position. Hence, the market values degrees and decides on this point. There are a wide variety of jobs available in different fields today compared to 50 years ago. Most of these jobs involve using the brain than manual skills. After all, a university degree is a starting point in your work life. On the other hand, the experience will increasingly provide opportunities for further development of the employee.

Let us take an example and compare 1 21-year-old university graduate with a 21-year-old employee with industry experience but no degree. Both these employees have equal intelligence and similar capacities in the other areas of their lives. In this case, due credit will be given to experience. But it doesn’t mean education isn’t important. As a side point if you are looking for a new role and are in the Brighton region you may want to look at a Brighton agency.

Work experience is more important

Just imagine a 21-year-old with three years of experience in his/her chosen field and some relevant industry qualifications. Is this employee more valuable or qualified for a job position than a newly qualified 21-year-old university graduate who doesn’t have any industry experience?

Placing yourself in this position, do you think you would be a stronger candidate for a job position with three years of experience in the chosen field and at least £30,000 earned during that time compared to another candidate with a university degree and limited practical experience in the field? If it is the person with experience, does an employer need to re-evaluate who they plan to recruit for their entry-level positions?

A degree was considered a major deciding factor when employing people to jobs in the past. But with more and more people getting university degrees these days, employers are less impressed with degrees and are focusing more on experience. If you asked an employer whether they would prefer to recruit a raw university graduate with three years of education but no experience in the industry or a college leaver with three years of relevant experience, the vast majority of employers would prefer the latter.

In fact, most of the time, employers mark educational qualifications as being “ideal” or “beneficial” but not “essential.” On the other hand, most employers prefer to review experience before education when reviewing CVs – apart from junior or entry-level positions. In fact, a three-year study-only degree doesn’t work when applying for a job. Hence, apprenticeships are becoming more commonplace in the job market today. But this may differ in some vocations where a certain level of education is needed to progress beyond a certain point. For example, engineering and accountancy jobs.

The best thing is to have a combination of both; education and experience in the industry. But an individual with the exact match of experience to a vacancy is more preferred by an employer in most circumstances.