The importance of high education is always controversial. To entry the university or go for a job just after finishing school, nobody knows what is the right way. The only one thing is clear, that the system of education in the universities is overvalued. University programs are too long and slow to change to meet modern needs. Boring assignments, useless subjects and hateful system of assessment – all of this decrease our desire of studying and we anyway pay for essay, which we were asked to write. Of course, the majority of students contact paper writing service Writingapaper.net, this is not a secret. The reason is clear, why should I spend my time for writing an assignment which I’m not interested in? So for this there is the best essay writing service which definitely knows how to write it correctly. So maybe it is better to go to a course, and study the field you like?
Micro-diplomas or higher education: which will win?
By the way, imagine a girl. Her name is Alice. Last week she got her bachelor’s degree in law. At her graduation, her parents gave her a huge bouquet. They believe this degree is the ticket to a successful future for their child. And then a week passes, the euphoria of the celebrations fades, and the flowers begin to fade. Alice sits in the park, eating ice cream, pondering how to look for a job, and planning for the future.
Everything seems cool, and the field of law is interesting, but… the girl doesn’t want to be a lawyer.
Unfortunately, it is a fairly typical situation. Official statistics on the employment of graduates are not collected, but job search websites conduct surveys on this topic. According to a survey:
58% of those surveyed do not work in their profession.
Moreover, 40% of students believe that the content of higher education programs does not meet the needs of the labor market.
So what should Alice do? Going to university and spending another 4 or 6 years on a new higher education is not an option. It is too long, and unreasonable. And whether she will get the skills relevant to the job market at college – it’s still a lottery!
Alice realizes that the best thing for her now is to enroll in courses that in less than a year will help her to master the new specialty and get a job. And it will also be cheaper financially than getting a new university degree.
Many people all over the world make similar decisions. Situations are different, but they all have the same need – to learn a new profession or skill quickly and cheaply.
Micro-diplomas are short courses that teach specific practical skills for professional development.
For example, they may be courses on project management, FrontEnd development, 3D modeling, in-depth interviews, or inclusive classroom techniques.
The market for micro-diplomas is growing every year.
Moreover, the majority of graduates plan to choose an educational program rather than a Master’s or second university degree.
What are the advantages of micro-diplomas?
Specific practical skills
You learn one or more related skills that are useful in your professional life. For example, you want to be able to machine sites. You may not need to spend four years at university studying computer science to do this. Instead, you can take a six-month course, build up a portfolio and at least get an apprenticeship.
Online learning is realistic and effective
As courses usually do not last long, people have the patience and energy to go through such training from start to finish in an online format. Let’s learn 4 years of undergraduate education in a massive online course format – that’s a separate kind of torture. Statistically, on average, only 3% of people complete courses in this format. But the shorter they are, the more people make it to the end.
Re-qualification and lifelong learning
In the film The Librarian, there was a hero with 22 college degrees. Soon we will be the same, only with dozens of micro-diplomas. The job market is changing at a frantic pace. The list of professions replacing artificial intelligence is ever-increasing. The pandemic is killing off entire sectors of the economy. Some technologies are emerging and others are becoming obsolete. In such an environment, everyone must be prepared to learn new things quickly and retrain.
Integration of practical courses in university programs
We have already mentioned the topic of outdated and inflexible university programs. Integrating third-party micro-diplomas into the curriculum could partly solve this problem. Imagine that instead of being lectured about algorithms by a boring “soviet” instructor, you listen to a modern online course on the same subject by a top manager of an IT company. And your university classifies such a course as a teaching load. Impressive, isn’t it? Just imagine: such a scheme is already being developed by private educational companies and universities as well. Even the EU is actively working on guidelines for the integration of micro-diplomas in higher education.
So far, it looks like an ideal option for our unstable times. But can micro-diplomas meet all career needs?
Let’s back to our Alice. She decided to change her degree, all that was left was to choose the direction of the course.
Parents were not very happy about this news. They began to prove to the girl that in six months she would not get a normal profession and needed to apply the knowledge that she had already received from 4 years of university. And Alice herself felt sorry for those 4 years.
And she is not alone. Most of those who want to retrain, but do nothing for this, it is just a pity to lose their knowledge.
But was studying at law school useless?
The university can also be useful
Universities have their problems and limitations, but this format is unlikely to disappear any time soon. Micro-diplomas can partly compensate for the disadvantages of traditional higher education but certainly will not replace it completely.
- Universities still perform important functions.
Fundamental training of specialists
Training a qualified doctor or architect cannot take six months. After all, these are professions in which many different skills and theoretical knowledge are required. The same applies to many other professions. You can learn how to develop applications on the phone, but to work as a programmer in NASA space programs, you need the fundamental knowledge, which is given by the university. In addition, on such a knowledge base, you can simply lay down new skills. And it is the micro-diplomas that will help with this.
Access to costly facilities
To learn to program, you usually only need your computer. But when it comes to biology or chemistry, for example, you usually need an equipped laboratory. Not everyone can set one up at home. Universities, on the other hand, have that option. That is why online courses are not always suitable for fields where specific facilities are required.
Building an academic career
Researchers and academics also find it difficult to move away from the university. To gain recognition in the academic sphere, you need a university degree and an academic degree. Having only a micro-diploma is not enough.
Socialization
If we’re talking purely about online courses, there is no campus atmosphere where you casually make new acquaintances, discuss, come up with projects or just relax together on the grass. For online education, you’re not likely to chat on a forum or in a chat room and you’re unlikely to develop a warm relationship with anyone. And networking is very important for professional development: you can find the best writing services, the mentor, the new job, the business partner, and the colleague on the team. At university, this can be handled much faster.
Providing accredited education
Universities work according to officially approved and unified educational requirements. This is not always an advantage, as programs can quickly become outdated and it takes a long time to change them. You can be sure, however, that if your university is licensed, you will find it easy to transfer or continue your studies abroad. And your previous education will be recognized. With micro-diplomas from private companies, often works differently. Often it is just a piece of paper that no institution will recognize. So for the time being, with a micro-diploma, you can only progress in areas where only your skills are taken into account. In industries where it is important to prove your skills with a diploma, however, it will be much more difficult.
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