Education Vs. Experience Part 2: The Future

*NOTE: This is Part 2 of an essay dealing with the value of education and experience. Part 1 can be found by clicking here.*

In Education vs Experience Part 1, we looked at – and compared – the two. It is my personal conviction that the best education one can get – and subsequently offer to others – is to amass experience and THEN pursue formal education – if, in fact, you want to actually go in the first place. I’m advocating that the vast majority of people go into the workforce after high school – if for nothing else, to gain broader work experience, promote a healthy launch into adulthood (as opposed to asking, “What do I want to do for a living”), and seriously address our declining collegiate education system.

I am NOT anti-higher education;  I am anti “you have to go to college to get a good job.”

There’s a difference.

 

Related: Read Higher Education? – Book Review

 

I know plenty of people who pursue this particular path (experience first, then education), and all have said the same thing: they wish they would have done it sooner – but they also can tell the difference between their effort (as someone older) and those who are younger with less experience – and, consequently, the value assigned to it, too.

Given this, though, the message still seems to be that education is more important than experience. Take a look at places hiring – many of them have educational requirements for their jobs. Even more remarkable – at least to me, anyway – many jobs also require experience, attempting to single out applicants as if to say they are equal in their importance.

Of course, those who pay attention know this is simply not true: experience trumps education – and the first post discusses this.

For this one, I want to talk about what I see as far as the future is concerned. We are living in a time when technological advances not only create more comfort but also require greater efficiency – both of which will pit education vs. experience in greater detail. What can we expect? How will the dynamic play out? Can we infer how this will look based on what we can see?

For my part, I think we can answer all of these and more based on trends, observations, and – yes, experience. I don’t think it is as mystifying as it looks. Let’s pull the curtain back, peer in, and glean what we can.

 

Technological advances

 

Technology is advancing at an amazing rate. Indeed, technology seems obsolete as soon as it hits the shelf. We don’t see new phones coming out all the time for no reason, after all.

Who can remember the days of disposable cameras? What about the first cell phone cameras? The phones now have some really amazing abilities as opposed to just 20 years ago – even 10 years ago. It really is something to behold.

Why does this matter? Can you imagine how difficult it is to educate someone on some of this fast-paced technology while it is continuously being outpaced by new tech coming out? If you have experience in navigating through software you have less of a handicap. That means your experience is more valuable than education.

Perhaps a better example would be a program that has more staying power: say, Microsoft Excel, for example. If you have ever worked with Excel, then you know it has a lot going for it. Yet, for most, much of what it can do is often not utilized – it has a broad application audience, and yet many only use it for certain things. How do you know what a company and/or entity use it for without the relevant work experience – and how do you get that experience without actually working for the company? Education advocates will tell you you can take a class in Excel and that’s true – you can. But it’s often more broadly focused, and you will still have to get the experience once you begin working for a firm. It’s important to note here I am not dismissing education, merely placing it behind experience – which is where I believe it belongs.

The model can be extended beyond Excel too – Bluebeam, Revit, BIM – the list goes on and on. The comparison here often falls short, too. For example, in the grander context of this post and the last one, we were pitting education as a degree vs experience whereas now we are talking specifics. To be sure, in this view, education is more valuable but still lags behind experience.

Because technology becomes obsolete at lightning speed, one would think that makes the case for education, but it’s actually the opposite. After you have taken classes, the technology has changed again, creating a need for you to re-up on your learning. But if you have the experience, it’s often more of a minor adjustment. In the end, the rapid advance in technology illuminates what people have known all along: experience is king.

 

Degree saturation

The college degree landscape is SATURATED

 

The number of college degrees has grown exponentially over the past few decades. This website here has a nice plotted graph keeping track from 1940 to 2019, and in the last 30 years, the number of people who have earned college degrees has DOUBLED. It’s also interesting to note that in this past decade, women have eclipsed men as the sex to earn more degrees.

This doesn’t mean college degrees are useless, but it does mean they are used less, and it’s not hard to figure out why: When the single biggest qualifier is had by many, it isn’t the qualifier anymore. This is precisely what is taking place today.

Combining the above with debt you can’t claim bankruptcy, and you have a very precarious situation. The house of cards that has been built over the past few decades is starting to collapse.

Or is it?

Elsewhere I’ve written about how colleges are seeking to rebrand and capitalize on the current skilled trades push. Essentially they desire to be seen as a one-stop shop – providing classical education and vocational training. To many, this sounds like a novel idea. The truth is, though, what colleges offer is akin to IRAPs (Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Programs) – a shell of a Registered Apprenticeship Program. I’ll have more on IRAPs and traditional RAPs (Registered Apprenticeship Programs) later, but for now, just know they are watered-down training models. One additional caveat worth mentioning: those same vocational programs at colleges you pay for. Many Registered Apprenticeship Programs, you GET PAID while you learn.

The above details what some of us have known for a while now – experience is preferred over education in the end. The trend going forward will see less emphasis on a college degree (education) and more focus on skilled trades (education masked as experience).

This is a good segue into the next point.

 

Skilled labor shortage

The shortage has tipped the scales heavily to one side

 

The skilled labor shortage (indeed, a tight labor market overall) is at the heart of what is taking place today. With the baby boomers taking part in “the gray wave,” there are more jobs than applicants. This is good for those coming into the skilled trades – and bad for education proponents. Companies are starting to understand they can’t have their cake and eat it too – they are going to have to do some training in-house for specific experience and application. Even better is an increase in union apprenticeship programs since they do any and all training signatory contractors require to put members to work.

RAPs (Registered Apprenticeship Programs) are at the heart of a push to recruit more people into the skilled trades today and are seen as one of the best ways to fill the gap. In the meantime, companies have sought to obtain experience through the practice of headhunting – recruiting experienced people from other companies.

 

Related: Read Headhunting – and its Increase in the Workforce

 

A friend of mine recently experienced this. A company offered him almost $100K IN THE POCKET (benefits are on top of that figure) to come be a superintendent for them. They didn’t do it because they thought he had an education – he has experience, and that’s what they value – and desperately needed. Likewise, I have received offers over the years for numerous positions: Safety Manager, Construction Manager, Superintendent – and all of them were because of the experience I have.

Maybe that’s you. Maybe you are one of the unicorns: 20 years in the game and 20 + years to give. Perhaps you’ve experienced headhunters reaching out to you trying to fill a position. Maybe you’ve been approached by other business owners who are always looking for talent. It could be that you’ve seen this happen to others. Wherever you are in this whole thing, you weren’t approached for the education you have; it was for the experience you possess.

Experience > Education.

 

Going forward

 

While there are numerous other parameters affecting the workforce, it is the three above that will propel experience over education even further. Look for the labor market to become more specialized as we grapple with skilled labor shortages and wages to rise. This is good.

Moreover, there will be a shift from education-focused to experience, and that experience is gained from apprenticeship models (RAPs), which incorporate on-the-job training. Headhunting will increase, no, headhunting will EXPLODE in use – and the main focus will be on experience. It is going to take years for the skilled trades to fill the jobs currently open (probably a decade at least, and that’s IF we are strategic, vigilant, and outside the box – which we are most decidedly NOT), and during that time, we will see those “skilled trades classes” colleges offer for what they really are: less stringent (according to the federal government) and less valuable. Why? Because registered apprenticeship programs PROVIDE THE SAME THING – and a union apprenticeship allows you to earn more than just money on the job, too. What’s more, many programs cost far less, often paying you to learn.

It’s an unprecedented time in the skilled trades, and, those companies who do not properly value experience will pay a STEEP price. For my part, I believe that the price for many will be the struggle to stay alive. Gone are the days when the industry as a whole could rely on people to knock on their door looking for a job. Entire industries have been created in the past 25 years (think the internet, for example) that the construction industry now has to compete with. Say goodbye to complacency – your laziness to approach things differently could cost you everything, including your entire business.

All told, the educational component has long been the quality standard for an applicant, but that is giving way to experience, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s been a long time coming. In the years ahead, the question will not be “Do you have a bachelor’s” but instead, “How much experience do you have?” Companies do not need educated personnel on their payroll – they need experienced people to do the work.

Perhaps one of the biggest changes we are going to see is increased educational endeavors from those already in the workforce. With the availability of online education, I see working professionals getting experience first and then returning to school – not because they have to but because they want to – and this is precisely what I advocate. It’s a novel idea: people taking college classes for careers that actually require it (doctors, lawyers, etc.) and because they actually want to. Returning the higher education model back to what it was decades ago is not only desirable but just makes sense – and, if I’m fair, is the only right course of action. Remember, an entire generation has been made economic slaves to get something that isn’t needed or helps them in the long run.

What would our culture look like with a properly balanced experience and education model? What heights could we achieve when we take a long look at how things are structured and right the ship? Can you imagine the talent we could see and help develop with a proper orientation of experience and education?

I can, and it’s one of the reasons I am optimistic about systemic change in the way we approach things.

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In short, experience will see its day in court.

And when it comes, I will be a witness called to the stand and testify.