Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2010, during Spain’s economic crisis; its remarks on unemployment among graduates and non-graduates and on what employers ask for reflect that moment.
It’s a hard question to answer: is it better to get a university degree or to do higher vocational training and specialise in something specific? You need to have a fairly clear vision of your future and, of course, choose a degree or profession with a future. Above all, it’s important to have worked out whether, one day, you’ll want to open your own business or company, or whether you’ll want to work for a company.
That question changes everything. In times of crisis, you’ll have noticed that there’s as much unemployment among people with a degree as among those without one. It’s true that, more and more, companies ask for university graduates for certain jobs, but it’s also true that some very important companies are looking for specialist geniuses in their field rather than students fresh out of university.
The pros and cons of studying for a degree
Donald Trump gave some advice about doing things in business: he urged people to follow their passion when opening a business. If we apply his advice to education, it might not work out the same way, because, sadly, following your passion when choosing a degree can lead you to finish it and then discover that it offers no job prospects, or that times have changed.
The biggest drawback I see in Spanish-speaking countries is that when someone finishes a degree and goes out to look for work, they run into two situations:
- Companies that, simply because you have a degree, will consider you overqualified for a lower-level job and won’t think it worth paying you more as a graduate, so they’ll look for someone without a degree who can do the same job as you.
- Companies that want a graduate with work experience and don’t count the internships you did while studying. This is the great dilemma many students face: they finish their degree and can’t get their first job because they have no work experience.
On the plus side, there’s one very clear advantage to getting a degree. For many companies, it doesn’t matter whether you’re good at what you do or mediocre: simply having the qualification will open more doors to certain jobs than for someone who doesn’t have it. In my view, that way of thinking is an advantage for the student but a huge disadvantage for the company.
Higher vocational training is well regarded these days for the simple reason that students learn theory and practice side by side. As time goes on, employers have said on many occasions that they see much better preparation in people with higher vocational training than in university graduates. Even so, some companies, despite knowing this, still prefer someone with a degree.
So that the same thing doesn’t happen to you as to many people you’ll meet, before you set off down one path, stop for a few days and look at the following:
- What am I really passionate about?
- Which way is the market of the future heading?
- What companies are there in my country, and what kind of staff will they need in five years’ time to grow?
- Of the people I know with a degree or with higher vocational training, how many are unemployed, and why?
- Do I have the character of an entrepreneur or of an employee?
When it comes to deciding which way to go, many of these questions will clearly be very hard to answer, because we know little about life at the time we have to decide.
I’m not going to give my personal opinion on whether it’s better to get a degree or not, because it’s clear that you can succeed in the working world and in business either way.
Remember, too, that these days you shouldn’t completely rule out what the market needs, and the market is asking for entrepreneurs.
Further reading
- The success of Steve Jobs and the early days of Apple
- Differences between a Spanish and an American business owner
- Thinking about how to choose your ideal job
Featured image: Theonlysilentbob, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
