A Lot Of People Seem To Think That Anyone’s Brain Power Can Be Assessed By Their Academic Abilities, But The Reality Is Not So Straightforward

Every year these is much debate when exam results are announced about whether exams are easier than they used to be or whether more complex ways of evaluating students’ work these days makes getting good results more easy. The debate will naturally take place again this year and in years to come, but to be honest I’m not that bothered what the truth of the matter is. What I do find irritating is that even for someone who has been working for twenty-five years or longer an initial overview of a job applicant’s talents will still include their education, when their achievements since leaving school or college may well far eclipse what exams they took.

At the same time, managing to learn one subject inside out in order to get result in an exam, does not necessarily mean that you will be an ideal employee or that you are in possession of the common sense or basic skills necessary to walk straight into a new job and be good at it. I have colleagues who are so knowledgeable about the subject they studied for their degree, but perform abysmally in other aspects of their lives.

In my opinion, it is necessary to find a combination of the two – qualifications and experience. I didn’t get great exam results at college, for several reasons, but I have never wanted to stop learning. It is a fact that the more you know, the more you want to know, as everything you learn leads you to find out about other things. I know a lot more about numerous topics now than I ever used to and I will continue to have an interest in, read about and find out about anything at all that I believe I should know about. It helps make any social situation so simple to deal with if you have a little knowledge of a variety of different things because that you can always take an interest in what is being said and can take part in the conversation.

But on a positive note, not having particularly great exam results meant that when I found myself a job I started in the lowest grade of job. And what a great way to begin in a new job! You get to learn about the business from the roots up, picking up many varied skills along the way. Always querying things and learning from what you are told gives you a complete understanding of how the business functions and being promoted through the ranks earns respect from your colleagues that is beyond value. You don’t just start as a manager and start telling people what to do. Instead you can understand what your staff have to do throughout the day because you’ve done the job yourself in the past.

Obviously I do know that some careers require proper intensive studying and training – I wouldn’t be keen to encourage my dentist or my Laser eye surgeon to be relying purely on GCSE Biology before they commenced filling my teeth or performing Laser eye surgery to correct my vision. And I’m quite sure I wouldn’t want someone fixing my car engine or repairing the faulty Laser eye beam in my CD player if they hadn’t studied to become a mechanic or an engineer. But there are countless jobs which don’t ask for such specialised training and if that is the case surely an employer should be looking at the applicant’s experience every bit as much as exam results from decades ago.

In fact, I would definitely choose to be what I am rather than what I could have been, though it may have taken many years to reach that conclusion. I feel pity for those people who think that their learning days are over when they leave school and whose days then are full of lowest common denominator television programmes and little else, because they can’t bring themselves to think about anything that might challenge their minds. (Yes, these people do exist – I’ve met some of them!)

I’m proud of the fact that I can be involved in discussions about numerous topics – from ballet to punk, snooker to cricket, bunion removal to Laser eye surgery, Charles Dickens to Douglas Adams, Ancient Greece to Hanoverians. I might not be an expert, but I will have the ability to join in with the conversation.

So, in summary, I don’t hold with the idea that anyone should just be judged on their academic achievements. To do that is to disregard the vast amount of knowledge that we can all take an interest in during our lives.