It’s often said that education holds the key to making a difference in a person’s life – and it’s easy to see why. Studies show that education can transform outcomes: one study in the UK alone found that nearly three-quarters of people with just basic qualifications are in work. But what about the effect on your career? Can education truly be the key to opening the doors to new or better roles?
This article will explore these interesting questions.
1. Niche skills
First of all, it’s worth considering the circumstances in which education in a niche field can help you invest in your career. If you’re training to enter a regulated profession, such as nursing, it’s likely that you’ll need to get the right qualifications – like the online nurse practitioner degree in Texas from an institution like TWU – in order to be eligible for jobs.
In these careers, it’s pretty much impossible to advance your career without getting an education – whether that’s a degree, a diploma, or something else. And it’s often also either necessary or strongly desirable to keep your qualifications and skills up to date via continuing professional development, which you can do as you go along in your career.
2. As a signal
But in some cases, education can function in a different way when it comes to careers. This is especially the case in the humanities or in disciplines or professions where no specific training is required in order to be able to do a job. In fields like communications, for example, people are often expected to hold qualifications with generic, transferable skills rather than specific ones. You can, of course, get a degree in communications – but it’s also the case that you can get a degree in something like history and use that to show that you can write, argue a case, and solve problems.
So, what is the role of education here? First off, it shows that you have a broad range of skills, such as those outlined above. By being a generalist, you can make yourself attractive to potential employers and give them a sign that you can do a range of tasks. It’s not necessarily any more or less prestigious than the equivalents outlined above for nursing, medicine, and other regulated professions; it’s just different.
But education also often functions as a signal of prestige, no matter whether you’re entering a regulated profession or not. Having a degree shows that you’re able to stick at something for a defined period of time, even if it proves to be challenging – which is an ideal skill to have in a workplace environment.
And if your degree is from a famous and well-regarded institution, it’s likely to be even more well-received and well-respected – which could lead to you jumping the queue when being shortlisted, as you can use it as a way of signaling intellectual prowess.
3. Better pay
Finally, it’s also worth noting that investing in your education can improve the amount you take home in remuneration. According to a study, it’s the case that in the US, people with a professional degree earn more than three times per week (as a median) than those with less than a high school diploma.
This doesn’t mean, of course, that everybody who gets an education will earn a lot of money – or that everyone who earns a lot of money has an education. And it’s also not the case, of course, that money is the only motivating factor when it comes to work. People go to work for a whole host of reasons, including to earn to survive – but also to derive intellectual fulfillment or to let their creative side out.
In this sense, education can be seen as a win-win, then: not only does it let people earn money, but it also allows people to indulge their passions and interests. Ultimately, education is clearly a major part of the world of career advancement. This can manifest itself in many ways, too. For some people, it’s a case of allowing them to access a regulated profession that calls for a specific qualification; for others, it’s a way of getting transferable skills for the world of work.
And no matter what role you go for, education can also signal prestige and hard work – and let you access jobs that are higher paying and more satisfying. So, if you’re considering training or retraining, or accessing education, now might be the time to put the wheels in motion. Lectera offers an extensive catalog of courses online, covering a diverse range of topics such as personal development, digital marketing, entrepreneurship, and more, allowing learners to acquire new skills and knowledge from anywhere in the world at their own pace.
Also read: How Students Can Study Remotely: 5 Tips To Make It Work
