Why you need a college education to be successful in your business or career

[RadeyaGlobal]

With information all around and easily available, is college still necessary?

This is a question on many people’s minds.

You might hear that a college education has no benefit and only results in high student loans.

And since a lot of companies and successful businesspeople no longer require a college degree when hiring, what’s the need right?

We agree that people without college degrees should have as much an opportunity to get high skilled jobs at great companies with high salaries as those with degrees. Not having a college education should not be a reason for not getting hired when someone has fulfilled all the other requirements of a job.

Nonetheless, getting a college education is preferable and the reasons are as follows:

1. College increases your intellect level. Studies have shown that more schooling increases a person’s IQ levels. And greater intelligence means greater ability to understand complex world issues and having greater business acumen. These skills result in better life and financial decisions.

2. While college may not be a necessity for a successful career or business, increased skills are. The people who say they aren’t hiring based on a degree do look at technical skills. The problem is that people usually don’t have the discipline to increase their skill level without a formal training program. Thus, for most people college is the best option. Otherwise they may end up without the skills needed for a professional job.

3. College gives you various life skills such as networking and relationship building, teamwork and cooperation, socialization, and time management. These skills result in an improved life and career.

And while further education is preferable and there are many universities to choose from - some that can even increase the chances of getting a job or higher salary - there is no need to go the regular route. You can take a two year program instead of the regular 4 year one. Or you could study a short vocational program. Or you could take a less expensive online self-study college degree program.

So yes college is preferable and has many benefits. If you can self study on your own, a college education can be substituted with self learning or on the job training. Alternatively, you can take an alternative study program offered by the many accredited universities and educational institutions.

If you are uncertain about getting a college education, join a training program and study a few semesters. Since every little further education increases intellect, the effort isn’t lost even if you don’t complete the program.

To summarize: college education is important and has many proven benefits.

 

[MBE2017]

Blah blah blah.

I find many college and uni students believe this rubbish, good and bad with anything. I’ve met more successful people who came from poor or negligble study backgrounds, but more than made up for this with their attitude and street smarts.

 

[japancool]

You know, a forum isn't a guest-posting blog.

Why do so many people treat it like one?

 

[Newchodge]

With information all around and easily available, is college still necessary?

This is a question on many people’s minds.

You might hear that a college education has no benefit and only results in high student loans.

And since a lot of companies and successful businesspeople no longer require a college degree when hiring, what’s the need right?

We agree that people without college degrees should have as much an opportunity to get high skilled jobs at great companies with high salaries as those with degrees. Not having a college education should not be a reason for not getting hired when someone has fulfilled all the other requirements of a job.

Nonetheless, getting a college education is preferable and the reasons are as follows:

1. College increases your intellect level. Studies have shown that more schooling increases a person’s IQ levels. And greater intelligence means greater ability to understand complex world issues and having greater business acumen. These skills result in better life and financial decisions.

2. While college may not be a necessity for a successful career or business, increased skills are. The people who say they aren’t hiring based on a degree do look at technical skills. The problem is that people usually don’t have the discipline to increase their skill level without a formal training program. Thus, for most people college is the best option. Otherwise they may end up without the skills needed for a professional job.

3. College gives you various life skills such as networking and relationship building, teamwork and cooperation, socialization, and time management. These skills result in an improved life and career.

And while further education is preferable and there are many universities to choose from - some that can even increase the chances of getting a job or higher salary - there is no need to go the regular route. You can take a two year program instead of the regular 4 year one. Or you could study a short vocational program. Or you could take a less expensive online self-study college degree program.

So yes college is preferable and has many benefits. If you can self study on your own, a college education can be substituted with self learning or on the job training. Alternatively, you can take an alternative study program offered by the many accredited universities and educational institutions.

If you are uncertain about getting a college education, join a training program and study a few semesters. Since every little further education increases intellect, the effort isn’t lost even if you don’t complete the program.

To summarize: college education is important and has many proven benefits.

Presumably this is a US based post? We don't have college degrees in the UK

 

[Ozzy]

I never went to college and I think I’m doing alright running my own business and I’m glad I didn’t. My daughter never went to college and she also runs her own business and is glad she didn’t go to college.
My son goes to college and is glad he does, and he has no intention of running his own business.

Very small pool size for research, but it is what it is in our household.

 

[Kerwin]

If I were looking for someone to hire, I'd be much more impressed by the person who taught themselves compared to someone who went to University.

 

[estwig]

I dropped outta school at 14 years old, I could earn on site, school didn't wanna pay me for my time.

Qualifications are great, you've managed to memorize a set of information, within a given timeframe, that someone has deemed pertinent!

 

[Deleted member 335660]

This highlights the problem with people’s understanding of education and training, and political intervention.

Starting with @MBE2017 contribution. Of course people can be successful without education but to think that there are more successful people without college or university degrees Is foolish and probably not a fact. Street smartness may help you get off the street, but not always in the right direction. Yes attitude is important and it certainly helped me and my mates move from our failed 11 plus Tottenham Streets to good careers.

Even reading posts on this forum, some quite successful people don’t understand the basics of business or have the knowledge to research an answer to their problem.

Secondly we confuse education and skills. Many youngsters were drawn to a university education when in fact they should have gone into some practical apprenticeship or technical college programme. Unfortunately a lot of business people today, and a lot of students, don’t want to be bothered with the effort, time and cost of running app rent schemes, so we end up with half-cocked modern apprenticeships.

It was right that university education should have been opened up to all, but the political targets set by politicians created the wrong environment.

Engineering in Universities is not about “skills” it is about broadending the mindset of students, research, innovation; not being able to weld a joint.

Liberal politicians did a great job in giving us all a basic primary and secondary education. Labour politicians opened up university education and it is a fact that the more educated we are as a society the better off we will all be.

What about Conservative politicians, well it seems they want value for money, targets and eliteness and to confuse the issues with academies etc.

I am sure if even @MBE2017 ’S children were good at school and wanted to go to university, he would support them and be proud. I cannot see any parent saying no, you can learn from the street.

 

[cjd]

I like my doctors, civil engineers, epidemiologists and solicitors to have degrees. I'm not convinced that the boss of a plumbing business needs one. Even business degrees are more useful to employees of large companies than the sort of companies we're involved with.

I'm a big fan of university education but for the majority of current students doing 'make-work' degrees it's an expensive waste, if the goal is a job or a business.

 

[WaveJumper]

What a load of rubbish UNI just another money making machine

 

[japancool]

Qualifications are great, you've managed to memorize a set of information, within a given timeframe, that someone has deemed pertinent!

That is not how a degree works, nor its purpose.

 

[japancool]

This highlights the problem with people’s understanding of education and training, and political intervention.

Starting with @MBE2017 contribution. Of course people can be successful without education but to think that there are more successful people without college or university degrees Is foolish and probably not a fact. Street smartness may help you get off the street, but not always in the right direction. Yes attitude is important and it certainly helped me and my mates move from our failed 11 plus Tottenham Streets to good careers.

Even reading posts on this forum, some quite successful people don’t understand the basics of business or have the knowledge to research an answer to their problem.

Secondly we confuse education and skills. Many youngsters were drawn to a university education when in fact they should have gone into some practical apprenticeship or technical college programme. Unfortunately a lot of business people today, and a lot of students, don’t want to be bothered with the effort, time and cost of running app rent schemes, so we end up with half-cocked modern apprenticeships.

It was right that university education should have been opened up to all, but the political targets set by politicians created the wrong environment.

Engineering in Universities is not about “skills” it is about broadending the mindset of students, research, innovation; not being able to weld a joint.

Liberal politicians did a great job in giving us all a basic primary and secondary education. Labour politicians opened up university education and it is a fact that the more educated we are as a society the better off we will all be.

What about Conservative politicians, well it seems they want value for money, targets and eliteness and to confuse the issues with academies etc.

I am sure if even @MBE2017 ’S children were good at school and wanted to go to university, he would support them and be proud. I cannot see any parent saying no, you can learn from the street.

For once, I agree with @Trevor Andrews.

 

[Financial-Modeller]

FWiW I think the OP addresses two separate points, so its not a binary answer.

"...you need a college education to be successful in your business or career"

A relevant degree will often (but not always) enable a graduate to join the workforce (as an employee) at a higher level and progress faster through their career than someone without a degree that is relevant to the career and valued by their employer(s). That is one measure of a successful career.

A business-owner needs a skillset including enterprise and leadership, that tend to be more inate and less learned, so someone with the skills to build a successful business is likely to do so with or without a degree. Many here are testament to that.

But I imagine there is a subset of founders of successful businesses who combine a degree with the vision to leverage the skills and contacts that they find within employment, for their own venture(s) afterwards. Did they need the degree? Difficult to say. Could they have done so without the degree? Probably not, or not as quickly and/or successfully.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Having a degree can have a side effect in that once put in a recruitment position, degree holders seem to narrow their search down to other degree holders and never bothering about those who took another route like far more years experience on the coal face who may be far more suitable

 

[Paul Norman]

I did not get a college degree. Or a university one.

I did have what I would regard as a very successful career.


If I was to take the advice of this post and go and get a degree now it would have zero impact on that career.


I think the view that non degree owners are somehow less competent is a bit narrow, really. And I would expect those with a degree to not have such a narrow view of the world.

 

[Paul Norman]

Of course it is true that in some places there is very proactive discrimination against those that don't have a degree.

Where that is acceptable is a matter for much debate!

 

[ekm]

I hated University - the course was allright and engaging (IT with Management) but it was its first year running, bit of a trial and clearly a product in the way it was delivered (mostly group assignments) which due to student culture and other reasons put me in a unique position of winning awards and failing my course simultaneously. I stood if for a year and left with the air of 'perhaps IT isn't for me'.

I do run a business but only a small weekend one as I now (12 years after the uni debacle) work in Cybsersecurity for a large company throughout the week. I got back into it quite by chance, I seem to have progressed quite fast though not having any formal quals in the subject was a bit daunting. I am glad I did, what I need in terms of education I will get through professional certifications but just as much experience. I appreciate I am quite lucky though.

Overall my attitude towards uni is quite negative and I think someone with enough motivation unless it really is a profession (like engineering, medical etc) you can mostly sidestep it.

 

[japancool]

Of course it is true that in some places there is very proactive discrimination against those that don't have a degree.

Judging by this thread, I'd be concerned that there is discrimination against those who DO have degrees.

 

[The Byre]

I'm a big fan of university education but for the majority of current students doing 'make-work' degrees it's an expensive waste, if the goal is a job or a business.

There are huge differences between universities and even between courses at the same universities. At the bottom of the pile of evil come the vocational courses - the worst of which being the sexy and fashionable subjects like cinematography and music technology (unless the student can get onto the NFTS graduate course or the Surrey Tonmeister course respectively).

The sad fact is that there is a total mismatch between uni courses and the world of work. There are about 40 commercial recording studios in the UK, most of which are struggling and about double that for audio-for-film work. These are all tiny companies and even the largest like Abbey Road only employ a handful of people - but there are over 2,000 music technology graduates being churned out each and every year. The only ones who know that they'll get a job are the Surrey Tonmeister graduates.

Rinse and repeat for all the other fashionable vocational degree courses - one or two courses provide the graduates employers want, the rest can go and whistle Dixie!

As for business degree courses - that depends on the quality of the course. Some are OK, others less so.

What I do notice from this forum is the large number of people entering the world of business who just do not know the basics. And that is somewhat alarming, as it means that there is an army of untapped talent that is destined to fail because they do not understand contract law, or how to do their books, or even how to cost and price up a product. Just the number of basic questions here about how VAT works should sound an alarm!

 

[Mark T Jones]

To take a slightly different slant - you can differentiate a degree and an education.

A degree is a certificate, which shows (in theory) that you have successfully achieved a certain standard of education. They can be fudged, manipulated and even bought online - which in itself renders that degree worthless.

An education, IMO is never worthless - although its value specific to a job or business is variable. The ability to focus, to learn and to accumulate knowlegde is in itself a thing of value.

 

[japancool]

Just the number of basic questions here about how VAT works should sound an alarm!

Given the number of people who can't work out an ex-VAT price from a VAT inclusive price, I'd say the problem begins much earlier than university.

 

[Deleted member 59730]

The important thing in life is to be curious. Read and learn all the time. You don't have to go to University to read the same books they do. While I only ever got Intermediate grade C&G certs. I've managed to hold conversations with some of our greatest academics.

 

[Paul Norman]

Judging by this thread, I'd be concerned that there is discrimination against those who DO have degrees.

I am sure there are examples of that, too.

People do, of course, need to have recruitment approaches that prevent discrimination in either direction.

Well, need is the wrong word. It would be desirable.

I just did a quick look at our record. Of the last 4 recruits, 3 were graduates.

 

[MBE2017]

I am sure if even @MBE2017 ’S children were good at school and wanted to go to university, he would support them and be proud. I cannot see any parent saying no, you can learn from the street.

Agreed, my daughter went to University to train to become a teacher, passed with a good degree and has secured a good position since you have to have a degree for the job.

All I took exception from was the assertion it is preferable to have a degree, that University makes you cleverer etc. Having met hundreds of my daughters friends who ALL have degrees, most are certainly not well educated, most I would NEVER consider for a job.

As another poster mentioned, education is just another business, pushing over priced degrees on the whole, many worthless in today’s world IMO. I actually see University more beneficial for the social contact than anything else, many of these youngsters believe they have hundreds of friends, most of whom they have never met. At least in Uni they actually learn to meet, greet, socialise etc.

This argument is as old as the hills, I try not to judge people by qualifications, more on their character. I have never recruited on qualifications in forty years, only on the person themselves and their experience.

 

[estwig]

That is not how a degree works, nor its purpose.

I will bow to your expertise on this, being an uneducated bint, I don't know!

 

[KateCB]

That is not how a degree works, nor its purpose.

Really? Depends on the degree then I suppose? The latest 4 people that I have come into contact with recently who have earned their degrees have learned a set of criteria for a certain subject, within a set timeframe and the subject matter is set by someone else - i.e it is what someone else deems pertinent. Yes it proves that they are capable of learning to this benchmark level, however, when they enter the workforce, they have absolutely no idea how any of it pertains to a real-life situation, or that the 'text book' answer is just that, rarely does it translate to a practical solution!

 

[japancool]

Really? Depends on the degree then I suppose? The latest 4 people that I have come into contact with recently who have earned their degrees have learned a set of criteria for a certain subject, within a set timeframe and the subject matter is set by someone else - i.e it is what someone else deems pertinent. Yes it proves that they are capable of learning to this benchmark level, however, when they enter the workforce, they have absolutely no idea how any of it pertains to a real-life situation, or that the 'text book' answer is just that, rarely does it translate to a practical solution!

Most serious degrees I've come across teach you the basic groundings of the subject, how to solve problems and critical thinking skills, not cram you full of facts.

I have no idea how "film studies" or those sorts of degrees work.

 

[KateCB]

No, I don't know about film studies either; the last 4 people that earned their degrees last year that I am in contact with were all academic courses, (IT & Medicine) and all complained of the learn by rote basis of each course