The Value of Higher Education

Abstract

            Higher entrepreneurship education serves to equip learners with skills and functional knowledge that will enable them to build on their attitude, character, and vision. Through it, individuals have acquired different skills in communication, developing business strategy, leadership and team management, abilities to work with teams, time management, work ethics, data analysis, and problem-solving. These are necessary that are inevitable for business because it forms the central part of its success. They can also be applied in vast areas, including the financial department, Information technology, and other departments. The skills can also be used in career improvement through networking, setting goals, and seeking other individuals' help. Besides, higher education provides benefits to the citizens in the growth of income, reduction of poverty and unemployment rates among the vulnerable population, promoting better health, and bringing unity among the people. In my educational journey, I learned some things that I want others to emulate, for example, time management and to work with others. Furthermore, the maintenance of life-long learning will involve prioritization, reflection, action learning, learning through curiosity, reinforce the knowledge by teaching others, insight concentration, and exercise.

Keywords: Higher education, entrepreneurship skills, benefits higher education, career improvement, and life-long learning maintenance

 

Introduction

            Entrepreneurship has been growing over the years, with a significant number of people enrolling in the related education field. Besides, it has also become one of the most potent things in the creation of a job and raising the strength of both labor markets and the economy. The industrial revolution created the need for individuals to have the necessary skill and improve on creativity, agility, and innovation (Altbach, Reisberg & Rumbley, 2019). Due to that, institutions have shifted to the provision of entrepreneurial training programs keeping in mind that the skills can be taught.

Skills acquired from higher education

            Higher education can instill individuals with various skills that can be applied daily in business environments. It boosts understanding of the business strategies. This is a set of actions, plans, and goals that a business intends to carry out to promote its success (Din, Anuar & Usman, 2016). Although its development and implementation are sometimes challenging, higher education helps individuals in understanding ways of establishing a good strategy that involves careful planning, having necessary knowledge concerning the market, and a precise definition of the organizational goals.

            Besides, higher education provides individuals with the ability to develop problem-solving skills. In business, numerous issues may arise that require power because challenges are inevitable. Also, the problems can be easy to solve with others becoming huge to the extent that it may interfere with goal attainment or the meeting the business objectives (Din, Anuar & Usman, 2016). Thus, having these skills brings a better understanding of the situation, provides alternatives to solving the issue, and finally, ways in which the chosen solution will be implemented.

            Higher education also enables individuals to develop a teamwork ability. In today’s business working environment, collaborative roles are common as employees are encouraged to work together to attain the goals of the organization or the business. With this, there is a need to have practical teamwork skills to facilitate better adaptation to working with others (Humburg & Van der Velden, 2017). This will involve accepting responsibilities for one's work, being receptive to the suggestion and ideas of other workmates, building rapport with staff within the firm, and practicing effective communication to reduce chances for duplication of work.

            Furthermore, communication skills are one of the crucial ones that are highly required in the current business sector. It is among the essential employability skills, and it has two main categories, which include verbal communication and written communication. This skill is crucial due to frequent application in ordinary business operations. It can involve sharing information with a customer, a colleague, and other stakeholders that form part of the business, for example, the external environment (Humburg & Van der Velden, 2017). However, the information delivered in business might not always be clearly understood; thus, having excellent communication skills will improve the clarity, and facilitate the proper delivery of ideas, which then helps in reducing issues of confusion resulting from miscommunication.

            Also, higher education gives individuals time management skills. This enables the entrepreneurs or the workers to have a good plan of their time and what activities to perform at specific points. This skill can increase productivity. Besides, it purely entails planning for the day, reducing distractions and performance of regular reviews to ensure that progress is being made (Din, Anuar & Usman, 2016). However, the most significant factor that must be considered is the prioritization that is gained from experience.

            Additionally, work ethic is also a skill that is crucial in business. It is often considered to be part of personal values. From higher education, individuals are taught on ethical issues in business, which then can be applied by individuals. For example, taking initiatives and caring about other colleagues at work. Besides, learning new skills, being responsible for the decisions and actions, and individual takes regardless of the consequences and showing commitments to the employer shows a good work ethic (Humburg & Van der Velden, 2017). This skill can be applied anywhere within the business environment, and it is an essential factor for the success of a firm.

            Leadership and team management is also another skill that can be acquired from the institutions of higher learning. It involves the motivation of others and taking charge to attain specific goals of the organization, team, or at the individual level (Humburg & Van der Velden, 2017). With this skills, an individual will be able to delegate duties and effectively manage groups, plan and coordinate different activities in the business, solving of problems and conflict resolutions and implement decisions that promote the growth of the firm

            Also, data analysis skills are crucial in today’s economy, which has seen rapid advancement in technology. It involves the identification of patterns to having an understanding of the customer metrics. Although the complexity of analysis depends on the firm, the ability to evaluate information effectively is crucial, and it serves to contribute to the success of the business (Humburg & Van der Velden, 2017). Besides, the aptitude for interpreting information, the creation of reports, and the extraction of results is a valuable skill that an employee needs to be equipped with. This skill can be applied in IT, marketing, and sales as well as in finance.

Application of the skills to improve Career

            Improvement of careers is a vital thing for human beings because it promotes professional development. With the skills achieved from higher education, it will be essential to set a career goal. Currently, various career options are available to pick from in the market, but, it will be necessary first to have a better understanding of individual strengths and weaknesses (Humburg & Van der Velden, 2017). Setting career goals and working the best way to achieve them will require proper decision making, communication with other individuals in the sector, and working with other individuals to make them.

            Besides, continuous learning is also crucial in career development. With skills in technology, learning can be achieved through the numerous available resources on the internet. Taking up online courses can also be done because of the efficiency and flexibility it has as opposed to the traditional methods of learning (Kucel & Vilalta-Bufí, 2016). Skills on technology which also involve data collection and analysis will promote a better understanding of the right sources and the necessary data to learn from the massive information present on the internet currently.

            Communication skills are a basic necessity to create networking, which is crucial in career development. With these skills, it will be easy to have effective communication with other individuals, such as former colleagues or even alumni groups (Kucel & Vilalta-Bufí, 2016). This is essential because career development also depends on the ability to reach out to people and marketability. With the presence of platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook, it is today more comfortable to reach people more and also have an understanding of industry trends.

            Other factors including utilization of the skills such as communication skills and ethical skills to seek help from others or to look for a mentor to help in improving one's career (Jain, Chaudhary & Jain, 2016). Besides, proper grooming is also crucial, though it has no direct connection with the job, it influences the way other people think. This can be gained through appropriate interaction with others. Most employers hire based on their perception towards and employee, and in this case, appearance is critical.

Opportunities for Higher Education

            Higher education provides opportunities both for individuals and society. Some of the personal benefits include; earning higher income for both men and women of all ethnic and cultural sets. Besides, there has been a significant increase in the earning gap in college and university graduates (Ma, Pender & Welch, 2016). To society, higher education is more likely to reduce levels of poverty and the current employment rates experienced. From this, the government will be able to generate more revenues. Also, there is a low dependency on social safety programs among adults who get a higher education, thus, reducing enormous budget demands.

            Higher education has also been linked with good health and low rates of smoking. This occurs because people are more informed of the consequences. Therefore, it promotes the well-being of individuals and reduces the economic burden that might have resulted from the health complications resulting from lifestyle diseases (Ma, Pender & Welch, 2016). Additionally, there is a higher correlation between public and social participation, which also includes volunteer work and blood donation programs among individuals who have attained higher education.

            Besides, higher education has also been linked with better unity and trust in society. It leads to a feeling of togetherness and compatibility in society. This occurs because of the common goals and values that are often among the professional community as they also incorporate an understanding of the individual uniqueness and variance (Ma, Pender & Welch, 2016). Furthermore, involvement in democratic rights such as voting is common among educated individuals, and it brings experiences of solidarity and nationalism as a single element that aims to push the country forward.

My Educational Journey

            My educational journey started a long time ago, when I was still young. I was lucky that my parents supported my passion for doing new things each day, including building my shop inside the house. Although I did not like school that much, I got used to it because my parents could not allow me to stay at home. As time went by, learning becomes something interesting to me because of the support of my friends, parents, and especially my teachers at school. Besides, I transitioned well to middle school, and though I had some challenges, I was able to overcome them with advice from teachers and friends.

            My journey was not that good, but, there are things I learned during the period. One of them is that discipline promotes success, and to me, it means having understood that your achievement depends on you. The other thing is that you need to take charge of your learning for you to find something fruitful out of it. Others include time management, ability to persevere and to learn to seek help from others. In my journey, I learned that there is nothing called “I can do this alone,” learning is something continuous, and there must always be a way in which what you think can be improved and made better. I will encourage others to learn from what I learned on my journey because I believe that is somehow the way he/she will be able to attain better academic achievement.

Maintenance of Lifelong Learning Attitude

Maintenance of lifelong learning requires it to be made a priority. An individual will be required to create time to build upon his/her knowledge during the day because nothing comes in without effort. Reflection of what was learned is also important after the reading, and then review periods will follow. Since learning through action results in better acquisition of skills, this will be good to include in the maintenance strategy (Longworth, 2019). Curiosity can also be included because of its ability to facilitate learning much faster.

Also, life-long learning can include teaching other individuals due to its ability to reinforce knowledge. This can be done through a demonstration of things, mentoring, and coaching. Besides, engaging insight will result in a better understanding of things. For example, discovery not only involves observing things as other individuals but also trying to find something different from it (Longworth, 2019). Concentration also needs to be included together with exercise and nutrition and, finally, the use of different learning styles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Altbach, P. G., Reisberg, L., & Rumbley, L. E. (2019). Trends in global higher education: Tracking an academic revolution. BRILL.

Din, B. H., Anuar, A. R., & Usman, M. (2016). The effectiveness of the entrepreneurship education program in upgrading entrepreneurial skills among public university students. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 224, 117-123.

Humburg, M., & Van der Velden, R. (2017). What Is Expected of Higher Education Graduates in the Twenty-First Century?. The Oxford Handbook of Skills and Training, 201.

Jain, R., Chaudhary, B., & Jain, N. (2016). Impact of mentoring on academic performance & career self-efficacy of business students. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 51(4), 684-694.

Kucel, A., & Vilalta-Bufí, M. (2016). Entrepreneurial skills and wage employment. International Journal of Manpower, 37(3), 556-588.

Longworth, N. (2019). Making lifelong learning work. Routledge.

Ma, J., Pender, M., & Welch, M. (2016). Education Pays 2016: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society. Trends in Higher Education Series. College Board.