Why Higher Education Is Overrated and Skills Aren’t

Posted by Shaza Hakim on July 30, 2010

“MIT’s motto isn’t Mens et Manus (Latin for Mind and Hand) by accident.”

“[It is] painfully clear to many employers [that there] are serious gaps between elite educational credentials and actual individual competence. College transcripts spackled with As and Bs — particularly from liberal arts and humanities programs — reveal less about a candidate’s capabilities than most serious employers need to know. Even top-tier MBA degrees often say more about the desire to have an important credential than about any greater capacity to be a good leader or manager. The curricular formalities of higher education — as opposed to its informal networks of friends and connections — may be less valuable now than they were a decade ago. In other words, alumni networks may be more economically valuable than whatever one studied in class. “Where you went” may prove professionally more helpful than “what you know.” That certainly undermines “value of education” arguments. While higher education itself isn’t marginal or unimportant, its actual market impact on employment prospects may be wildly misunderstood. In “Econ 101″ terms for job-hunters: time spent cultivating your Facebook/Linked-In network(s) may be a better investment than taking that Finance elective.”

Excellent argument on why great knowledge is not the same as great skill by Michael Schrage of the Harvard Business Review.