Thursday, September 20, 2012

A Closer Look At Life Experience Degrees

By Marissa Potter


For a large majority of people, getting a bachelors degree means going through four years of university education, sometimes even more depending on the course one is pursuing. There are however, institutions that offer life experience degrees to those who may wish to get them. Such a degree is given to a person depending on how many years of work experience he or she has.

It is a concept that raises more questions than answers. There are individuals who strongly oppose this concept and those who support it fully. Both camps have their reasons for supporting or opposing.

Most bachelor degree programs take four years. This simply means that anyone who has four years of work involvement as a human resource manager for example, holds a bachelors degree in human resource management. For one who has six years of know how in the said field, he or she is equivalent with a masters degree holder from a university. For those with eight years of know-how, they qualify to be awarded doctorate degrees in the said field. This is how the concept works.

Opponents of the concept do not hesitate in pointing out that their opposition should not be taken to mean that experience is not important in the job market. This is not their bone of contention. Their bone of contention is that know how cannot be an academic qualification on its own. Both the two, know-how and academic credentials, are important. They however cannot be used interchangeably.

Most workers in modern day offices have the same duties and responsibilities day in, day out. This means that by the time they are being awarded a bachelors degree because of life experience, they will have done the same thing every day for four years. Critics of this concepts find it unfair to equate the qualification of such a person to that one of someone else who has been in class learning a lot of different things for the four years.

When in school for whichever degree program, there are some general courses, which everyone has to take despite what their specialization is. These include algebra, communications, and even world history among others. Critics argue that it is not possible for someone to have experience in all the fields covered by the general courses. This means that anyone who earns a life experience degree has not fulfilled the requirements spelt out by the curriculum for the award of the degree.

Those in support of this concept have one major argument. They are quick to assert that what people do when schooling is simply getting knowledge that will help them in carrying out the duties involved in their line of work, once they finish their studies. If a person has been working for four years, it means that the person has acquired the knowledge needed for that job otherwise he or she would not have done it for so long.

Life experience degrees are here with us. They do not seem to be going anywhere anytime soon either. The increasing number of universities offering these degrees is an indication of this.




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