The notion that degrees alone should be prioritized above skill development is outdated. You might forget most of your coursework at university after a few months, but skills are something that is honed and improved over time.
What dissuades a lot of people from learning a skill is the notion that you’ll most likely end up performing manual labour if you learn a skill instead of attending university, but it is no longer so. There is nothing shameful about earning your wages through labour-intensive work, but a lot of people would rather not.
And since learning a skill equates to manual labour to a lot of people, most people would rather not learn a skill. Most people seem to forget that as tailoring, carpentry and bricklaying are skills, so is graphic designing. If that prejudice was dissuading you from learning a skill, then I urge you to consider learning a skill with a more open perspective.
It is obvious that job skills, not academic degrees, will be more important in the workplace of the future. So this is your chance to pursue fulfilling professions and broaden the diversity of the workforce.
In the next ten years, technology is expected to change over 1 billion occupations, or over one-third of all jobs globally, according to the World Economic Forum. This indicates a before-unseen and fast increase in new forms of digital employment. The Jobs of Tomorrow study from the Forum predicts a sharp increase in employment in the data and AI economy, as well as in engineering, cloud computing, and product creation. These positions need talent with applicable abilities, which are crucially learnable even by non-college graduates.
If you still haven’t considered learning a skill in your future plans, then read on as I’ll highlight 5 reasons you should learn a skill instead of attending university.
1. Fewer entry requirements
To attend university, you need to be an exceptional student or at least a good one. There are a lot of exams you will have to write and that equates to a lot of studying. You will have to work hard to get admitted to a university. If that seems daunting, then maybe learning a skill will be a better option.
You can learn a trade by either attending a trade school or starting an apprenticeship. Trade schools or vocational schools have much lower entry requirements than universities do, while entry requirements for an apprenticeship are practically nonexistent. So even if you are at the bottom of your class, you can still learn any skill that you want.
2. Less expensive than a university degree
Earning a degree will undoubtedly cost you a lot of money. You will need to pay for tuition, books accommodation, and living costs for at least four years, while you will only end up spending a fraction of that money and time learning a skill.
Learning a trade will take at most 2 years and fees are typically much less than that tuition in the university. If you can find an apprenticeship close to where you live, then you can go from home and eliminate the cost of accommodation.
3. More hands-on experience
Rather than attending boring classes every day, you get hands-on training when you decide to learn a skill. Apprenticeships offer on-the-job training that you can easily transfer when you start your career. This will help you gain professional training while still learning and prepare you more appropriately for your future.
There is a lot of studying you have to do when you attend university, which you might end up forgetting after passing your exams. There are a lot of things you will learn that might never come in handy when you eventually start your career, which equates to a lot of wasted time and resources. But when you learn a skill, you get more focused training than what you will get in the university, which will help you perform excellently in a job role.
4. Faster entry into the workforce
Learning a skill typically does not take as long as a college degree. Within a few months, you can start earning and gaining important work skills and experiences. This implies that rather than earning nothing at all, or worse, taking out a loan to pay for a degree that may not be worthwhile, you might spend the next few years increasing your net worth or accumulating money. While your peers will still be in the university, you will have long established yourself in your career.
The trend in Nigeria nowadays is to earn a university degree, and then when you are not able to get a job for a few years, you learn a skill and then start earning money with your skill. Imagine the wasted time and money when you could have skipped university and gone straight to learning a skill instead.
5. Better financial stability and employment security
Having a degree does not always equate to being gainfully employed. With a skill, you could easily establish yourself, rather than waiting around for a job. Picking up a skill might provide you with a special opportunity to run your own company. If you so want, you may work as a plumber, but you can also launch your own company and employ other plumbers.
The truth is that there’s a big possibility for entrepreneurship when it comes to the trades, so those who detest having a boss should take note. Acquiring a skill may help you become an expert in a useful talent that employers would pay for, so you have more freedom to choose whether to work for yourself or another person.
Conclusion
If you think learning a skill instead of attending university will put you at a disadvantage when it comes to your earning potential, then you’re wrong. With skill, the possibilities are endless; you could look for employment, decide to market your capabilities as a freelancer or start your own business. You also have at least two more years ahead of your peers to establish yourself in your career before they graduate and start looking for jobs.
