Do Employers Prefer Education or Experience?

Do-Employers-Prefer-Education-or-ExperienceWith the highly advanced world of the modern times, the competition for jobs have also escalated. There is a huge supply of graduates both fresh and those who have already acquired years of experience and also there is a portion of skilled labour force who are not graduates. Even so, the latter have compensated for their lack of formal education qualification by acquiring the skills and knowledge through other means including training and experience.

Job Market

The manpower supply in the job market can be classified into graduates and non-graduates or those which have formal education and the ones who do not. The latter banks on experience to be and stay competitive. Further, they can be sorted out into those who have made their experience, skills and training certified. Still, they may not be considered having the formal education. Still, employees who do not have certified formal education can earn such qualification by going back to school.

Competition

Between graduates and non-graduates, whom do employers prefer? What has more weight to companies — education or experience? This could be included in the best topics for business essays and education dissertation. We could use some figures and facts to help us find the answers, give our own arguments and support them. Here we go.

Facts and Figures

According to a survey commissioned by Edge in the year 2005 in the United Kingdom, 71 per cent of the employers who responded said that they would consider hiring young people who have poor grades in school academic exams but have acquired a large amount of work experience. Relating to this as one of the findings, another is that 67 per cent of the employers believed that schools were not equipping young people with the essential skills needed in working in jobs including team work, communication and time keeping. Edge is an organisation which is a foundation concerning practical learning.

Arguments and Support

According to Edge chief executive Andy Powell, employers are giving more importance to the real practical experience within learning and the understanding of what it is really like in the workplace in applicants. This is made very clear than ever before by the survey, he said. He explained that the present education system is not providing these. He related that employers are frustrated by the sight that young employees are finding it harder to cope in their first jobs citing that they have been limited and choked in the classroom and with textbooks style learning instead of learning how things are actually done in the outside world.