by Anthony Megna

Created on: February 06, 2010   Last Updated: May 06, 2012

What is more beneficial for the worker, a higher education or work experience?  This is an age-old question that always seems to be asked by people.  So what is the answer?  It would seem that if someone has more experience in a job, or knows how to do that particular job well, no matter what their education is, that person should get ahead faster in their career.  Why is this?

Imagine you own or run a company and you are faced with a challenge in order to grow your business.  One of your employees has come up with a solution that is a no-brainer and is virtually guaranteed to grow your business.  But since that worker only has a high-school education does that mean you're not going to accept his or her idea?  Of course not!  You probably wouldn't give a fig as to what the background of your employee is as long as said employee has the answer to your problem, right?  So logically it wouldn't seem to matter if that worker went to college or not, as long as that worker has the intelligence to figure out what the issue is and has come up with the right answer. Why would you, as the owner or president of the company, deny that worker a bonus or an advancement?  It just doesn't make sense and it would be counter-productive not only for the employee, but for the general atmosphere of your business.

When we look at the likelihood of which worker might advance in his or her career faster, it's true that people with more education might advance further in their particular field.  This really has to do with training more than anything else.  It is only natural that if a person has studied for years to be a professional, no matter what the field, that person has the odds on his side as to whether they might advance faster than a person who hasn't studied as much.  But, the flip side is also true.  A person who has actual experience in the field has faced real-world situations and knows how to deal with them.  Reality seems to be the best teacher of all, and there is almost no substitute for it.

Higher education can be compared to a flight simulator.  If a person studying to be a pilot doesn't have the flight experience required to take a plane up in the air, they put that person on a flight simulator.  A simulator is supposed to provide actual situations when learning how to fly, and it does for the most part.  Just as astronauts spend hours and hours in a simulator learning how to fly the space shuttle, simulation is a great teacher!  But would you rather have a pilot who actually has flown the shuttle piloting your spacecraft, or someone who spent hours on a simulator.  I'll take real-world experience any day of the week!  It doesn't mean that the person who has simulator experience might not make a good pilot, but the fact of the matter is that why shouldn't I take a prov-en pilot over someone who hasn't actually flown before?

This analogy makes sense when discussing real world experience over higher education, or someone who has "studied" more than someone else.  There really is no substitute for real-world experience, and as the saying goes..Experience is the best teacher!

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