Education would be much more effective if its purpose was to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they do not know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it. William Haley
By pondering on this quote, the realization that learning does not end the day you graduate from school hits you. It is a life-long process and the purpose of having a certificate is to give you a head-start in life, but success does not just happen because of the certificates we have but on how we have decided to use the knowledge acquired and how innovative we get along the way. African Millennials, today, have to realize that it takes more than certificates (education) to thrive in the real world; this is due to the fact that though a large chunk of Millennials has the basic first-degree requirement, much more is needed to get the right attitude to succeed these days. By certificate mentality, we mean an over reliance on one’s certification as a means of being successful or seeing the certificates as the perfect answer to creating wealth; in other words holding a misconceived idea that success is tied to the acquisition of various certificates.
In the preface to the 2011 revised edition of his book ‘Out of Our Minds’, Sir Ken Robinson observes that “The more complex the world becomes, the more creative we need to be to meet its challenges”; and this is becoming increasingly clear in education and the workplace. People now need to be creative to become successful, but while being successful has changed, the educational system has not adjusted its methods or goals to meet this change, especially in Nigeria. Decades ago when the needs in the workplace were quite different, a certificate might have sufficed as a means to being successful and the only tool needed to thrive in the business environment but nowadays, it is quite different and the Millennials need to wake up. It is pertinent to note that the certificate/education alone does not prepare you for the realities of the real world. The regular or run of the mill jobs are no longer there and some jobs/careers are at the danger of becoming extinct thus it has become very clear that getting certifications will not assure one of leading a successful life or career especially with the current curricular run by the schools in Nigeria.
This is not taking away from the fact that getting an education gives you an advantage and it helps differentiate one amongst competitors from a pool of individuals with similar or more talent and most times this improves the chances of employment by getting you to be noticed yet certificate is never enough in the end. In today’s real life terms, getting a certificate and a ‘job’ does not necessarily mean you will end up successful. Obvious examples can be seen with Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates. Well, other than the fact that they are successful, wealthy entrepreneurs, they are either school dropouts or did not even go to the university at all yet they were innovative because beyond the certificate/education, innovation is the vehicle that aided in achieving their successes.
Elon Musk is undoubtedly one of the most innovative and creative men around. After all, he founded Tesla, SpaceX, Paypal and a host of other companies that contribute to his goal of changing the world and humanity. So we should not be shocked that he is also aiming to change the way students are educated. Elon Musk surmised in an interview that there was no need to have a college degree at all or high school certificate because many graduate from school and feel that they would do great things which is not necessarily the case. Musk is not alone in these thoughts. Internet giant, Google, has moved away from their early focus of hiring from a collection of top schools, and as of 2013, up to 14% of some Google teams were filled with people who had never even gone to college. Google did not change their hiring process based on some sort of anti-establishment ethos, they did it based on their own analysis of their own employees. They found that there was no relationship between job performance and GPA or college affiliation after the first few years on the job. In fact, Google’s Senior Vice President of people operations is on the record saying that grades are “worthless as a criterion for hiring.”
Now the message being passed is not to say going to school is a waste of time but along with certificate acquisition, be innovative and learn to re-invent and be flexible to the changing world order. It is not everyone who drops out of school or is unschooled that will end up becoming extremely successful. In an interview; no discredit to certificate acquisition but that oftentimes people learn things that they never get to use in the real world or business environment. You have countless examples of people who study one thing in school and end up in a completely different field; it all boils down to being innovative and flexible enough to re-invent yourself.
In reality, most times especially in this part of the world, “A” grade students often work for “C” grade students or those who finished with average grades in school. The question to ask is ‘If everything one needs to succeed can be found in a college curriculum, business school or a business book, how come everyone that attends or reads these books do not end up successful? The answer is not far- fetched. Millennials are waking up to this fact gradually even though there is still a resolve to acquire certificates with reckless abandon. In these climes, an average manager sometimes has nothing less than 3 academic certificates that he/she may not have needed to acquire in the first place but because its cliché, he/she joins the rat race so he/she may forge ahead at work (or so they believe). That is the epidemic that has been called ‘Certificate Mentality’. Acquisition of several certificates does not equate being successful.
It usually is bragging-rights when an individual has up to 3 Masters Degrees, for ‘Baby Boomers’ it seemed the chip on their shoulders increased with the number of certifications they garnered. Times are fast changing, now being successful can be associated with those that are creative and innovate constantly. This is why most ‘A’ grade students end up working for the ‘C’ grade students. Ever wondered why? The ‘C’ grade students are usually the creative thinkers, dreamers and future entrepreneurs. It is because the ‘C’ grade students have failed several times or they have to become innovative to defeat the stigma associated with being ‘C’ grade students before achieving some form of success, a path attained by a lot of self-discovery before then starting their own business.
This characteristic is mostly lacking in the ‘A’ grade student, failure is quite strange and scary to them. Their lives are often characterized by what is called the ‘Parent Theory’. Study hard, get ‘A’s, get a good job, buy a car, and buy a house. Most times, these laid down paths do not let the student find and nurture his own unique gift neither does it guarantee him success in the future. Rather than tie success to certificate acquisition, the focus should be more on personal development, soul-searching, re-invention, innovation, and creativity for the Millennials, this helps them find the paths they can walk on with genuine love and passion. Do not be the predictable Millennial who limits his knowledge to just the theory books or college education. In addition to the certificate there is a need to be creative, take risks, and Kaizen spirit (which is a Japanese concept meaning “continuous improvement” or “change for the better”).
It is important to embrace self-development and not just building resumes with certificates acquired which have little or no relevance to the larger society. On the affirmative there is a need to be well educated but the focus should not be on just certificate acquisition but on how to make the education count and reflect in the changes made on the job and in the society. The problem sometimes is the fact that a college degree would direct your thinking. Observations at interviews reflects a bunch of people who were able to take notes for four years and regurgitate back to pass their examinations. It does not necessarily mean those students are smarter or can think on their feet.
Over the years, Millennials have been sold the lie that college degree equates being successful, these might have been absolutely true some 40 to 50 years ago when the competition in the marketplace was not this stiff. All a person needed to emerge out of abject poverty was to acquire an education and oftentimes the Government and Private Parastatals had a job waiting for you. The list of ‘Baby Boomers’ who became successful through this approach back in the 60’s is endless. But now, the story is different; beyond certificates Millennials now need more to succeed.
Sir Ken Robbins, PHD, once described a school system as a factory line where things are labelled, compartmentalized and pushed through the system just like products in a factory and overnight we expect them to function in a world that does not operate like the school system. Being a successful person through the acquisition of certificates works well for some people but things are changing so fast these days; according to him there is a need for divergent thinking which is not necessarily the same as creativity. Creativity is the process of having original ideas which have value. Divergent thinking is not a synonym, but it’s an essential capacity for creativity. It is the ability to see lots of possible answers to a question. Lots of possible ways of interpreting a question. To think not just in linear or convergent ways but to see multiple answers and not one. You start off not being very good but you get better as you get older. It shows us two things: One is we all have this capacity, and Two: It mostly deteriorates. This is why Millennials must constantly re-invent and be innovative.
The narrative must change in order to see real changes in our lives and in the workforce. As to what used to be a cultural paradigm shift in our society that suggests that a college degree is a stepping stone to creating a life and to a degree that is meaningful and successful. This is becoming less true, academia used to lead the way in terms of thought leadership in regards to most fields be it Business, Science or Art whatever the case may be and by virtue of the rate of change in the real world today and how dynamic the whole world has become. Research now shows that traditional educational institutes by virtue of their size and bureaucracy are training people for a world that no longer exists.
High-achieving people are frequently choosing to be creative with their jobs. People need to be creative and innovative to be successful, but while the idea of success has changed, the educational system has not always adjusted its methods or goals to meet it. High achieving people are not so certificate conscious, they make the move towards a new field or career once they understand the changing times and they innovate in such a sphere to create a niche for themselves; like Dr. Adebola Akindele said once in a speech “learn to re-invent yourself”. High achieving people are very flexible. Before, education emphasized compliance and conformity over creativity, two skills that were required to do well in a professional or corporate environment and to hold down a good job for decades. Compliance and conformity are now relics, but they are still key values in many schools, informing policy even when not being expressly promoted to students. This is the same narrative that led people into having the “Certificate Mentality”. The skills necessary for a thriving career is honestly more than trusting so much in accumulating degrees. Skills such as creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. e.t.c.
Creativity is about thinking through information in new ways, making new connections and coming up with innovative solutions to problems. Critical thinking is about analyzing information and critiquing claims. There are other skills that are equally as important, these skills are categorized into four areas. Entrepreneurship can be considered a skill necessary in the global context today. Inquiry and problem solving are key. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is one of the most important keys to successful work and relationships.
It is important to note as Millennials that innovation and creativity is a vehicle that drives success in the 21st century. Innovation is as a matter of fact, a survival skill needed in the 21st century due to the fact that there is increased competition in the business environment more than ever before. Another issue is the fact that there is increased expectation from the employers and the business environment as a whole.
The bottom line is for Millennials to have a paradigm shift as regards acquiring certificates, the workforce is not on a quest to attract talents with an endless list of Certificates but a group of people whose values transcend the Certificates they carry about. This is because today’s individuals, managers, employers face an unprecedented challenge: the world is changing much faster than they can think of. In the global business environment of ever-increasing uncertainty, the pace of change is only going to get faster. The way forward is to innovate and re-invent ourselves for the 21st-century workforce. Conclusions would be drawn with these quotes:
- “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” –Steve Jobs
- “Innovation is the central issue in economic prosperity.” –Michael Porter.
https://thinkstrategicforschools.com/education-21st-century
https://www.thecoachingroom.com.au/blog/sir-ken-robinson-on-changing-education-paradigms