Knowledge and skills part 6
There is a gap between what student learn in school and what the industry need. Students' knowledge in classes may not reveal their skills in the industry. High scores only means that they do well in examinations, NOT what they can do in the real world. There are some top students do NOT perform successful in the industry.
For many years, university focused on educate students based on what the academic people believe is good. They assumed that there is a correlation between education knowledge and skills but in fact the knowledge does NOT always translated into skills that the industry needs. Knowledge is what students learn in school and skills are what they apply their knowledge to achieve some objectives. From the industry's view, it is NOT the knowledge in school but the skills on the job is important. Unfortunately, many academic people still believe as if a college degrees mean that students can do everything in the industry.
Today there are many software graduates who cannot solve problems or manage a projects. They are not people who cheat on exams or copy homeworks from friends and somehow pass enough classes to get degrees. They are good students but many still find difficulty in working in team and adjust their knowledge to solve real-world problem. Their academic studies are good, their exam scores are impressive but focusing on their educational accomplishments sometime misrepresents their skill set outside the school. University do well with knowledge transmission but not skills. However, company hiring is focusing on skills not much in knowledge.
Today, company has to find skilled people for their open positions. They want to actually see those skills in writing, in computing, in designing and in presenting. They often ask candidates to demonstrate their skills by asking them to show how they might solve a problem, write a short program in particular language programming language or adapt a design according to certain architecture. Beside these technical skills, soft-skill such as verbal fluency, presentation skills, and leadership is also important. To get hired, students must be able to demonstrate these professional skills and this is where many students find it difficult.
Even there is a shortage of people in the job market worldwide, companies are much more selective in their hires because invest in trainings after hiring is very expensive. Many graduates require several months before they can be productive and it is unacceptable in the competitive world. My question are: Did they teach that in college? Do you understand the difference between an academic knowledge and industry skills? If not. Where will you learn that? How do you transfer your knowledge into skills that industry needs? Please understand that a degree is only a key to open the door to an opportunity but to enter to get a job, you must have skills to demonstrate your knowledge.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
