Mini Motivation #57 - Are you pursuing a certification, or an education?
Some time ago I had a conversation with my 9 year old, William, and we were taking about universities. I asked him why he wanted to go to one, and initially he said all his friends planned to.
"Well, you gotta have a better answer than that, because I'm not gonna send you to university just because of your friends."
He was quiet for a while, and figured that he wanted to go to uni to get a cert, for which why he felt he needed one.
After a longer pause, he replied that he wanted to use the cert to get a job, which I'm ok with. And when I pushed him on why he felt he needed a job, his blank-faced "duh" reply was,
"Because I want to earn money."
I congratulated him on arriving at that conclusion, but asked if it's possible for him to earn money without the certification. Because he knew a couple of my friends who earned income using their skills - photography, writing, sales, designing, coding - who did not have a proper certification, he nodded.
What I was trying to relay to him that day, was that to focus on honing a "bankable" skill, and not just expect a certification to earn him money. If you look around, there are many unemployed graduates, working as waiters while waiting for their proper jobs, no pun intended, and no disrespects to waiters too.
It's not that I do no encourage going to universities, as a matter of fact, I do. Because if Will goes to a good one, he will be exposured to amazing growth opportunities and network of lecturers and friends. But not just for a certification, but education.
Our conversation ended that day, with my son understanding the difference of both. Time will tell how ingrained the message was, but subtly, I always reminded him to hone bankable skills rather than be a generalist with a cert.
What do you think?
Mini Motivation is my own daily strategy to inspire myself. Mostly 3 minute reads.
From Motivation, we gain Inspiration. From Inspiration, we achieve Momentum. And the rest, they say, is history.
Hope it helps nudge you a bit too in the right direction.
Oh it did? Let me know in the comments, and of course an upvote would be a nice motivation for me. :)
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@maverickfoo You're son's education starts with you and it's so cool that you're making him think and not just teach him what to think. I could bet he's going to grow up wise. 😊
A father can only hope :)
it is indeed important to know the difference between these two. all the more with the rising cost of university tuition fees. I still can't forget when our local comedian Douglas Lim said this. education is free. a certificate is not. as long as we are hungry to learn. there's more than enough ways to obtain knowledge :)
Hey, there's actually much through in what he said! I learned something new already! Thanks!
@maverickfoo, there is no good or bad conversation, but I bet he would start thinking differently from now onwards. I guess kids always have a misperception that having a laptop will make them money (my son think that too), which I love having such conversation to guide him to the right mindset.
Haha, if having a laptop makes me money automatically, I would be sleeping on them everyday! Or better yet, keep them in the bank and see how my bank balance grow!
Jokes aside, I think kids need to know the difference between tools and skills. In the absense of tools, your skills can still keep you afloat. But without skills, all the tools in the world ain't gonna help.
@maverickfoo, couldn't agree more on that. Tools are more like accelerator to help them boost the speed once they had mastered the skills. It is the strong fundamental that need to be built when young so they know and learn how to handle the tough situation when they grow up.
Too many educational systems encourage the belief that going to the University is a guarantee for a job, which is a lie.
Most parents tell their children this lie, thinking it to be the truth. Maybe there was a time when this was so but not anymore.
If a child is to go to the University, let it be to learn, to understand and to interact. Let exams not be a criteria to judge knowledge but a means to evaluate growth.
I also encourage the Idea of kids learning a skill during school break. Yes, sewing, carpentry, painting, coding, whatever. This skill night just be the difference between an unemployed graduate and an employer of labour.
A lie indeed, and the institutions are making tons of money from it. Students are getting into debts before they even started earning!
The information you provide helps us a lot.
thnx for ur post