Completing university education is thought by some to be the best way to get a good job. On the other hand other people think that getting experience and developing soft skills is more important. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

In today's world, education plays an important role in shaping the life of an individual. Without proper qualifications, it is difficult for any person to secure employment which will safeguard the future of one's family. In fact, it is believed that the higher the level of education, better the chances of getting employment.

Thus

, in order to find a well paying job, you try to get into best of the universities, register in the best of the courses offered by them and

finally

fight with all other applicants to ensure that you get selected for the post.

This

exact situation is what I had experienced during my final year of engineering, when companies came to our college for campus placements.

This

constant struggle to find better employment, has forced students to score good grades in schools and colleges without actually understanding what is being taught. And when these students go out in the real job market, they are unable to complete even simple tasks due to lack of understanding about the actual problem.

Furthermore

,

such

students grow up with neither the skills nor the know-how that can be applied in daily life situations. Due to these reasons, people believe that rather than imparting just textbook knowledge, students need to experience the real problems by exposing them directly to real life tasks under mentors or guides.

Such

ideas,

although

really helpful, cannot be implemented under all situations.

For example

, you won't mind to be served by an inexperienced waiter working under the watchful eyes of the manager, but you would never fly in an aircraft

that is

flown by a novice even if they are being guided by an experienced pilot.

Hence

, we need to combine both of these ideas and find a middle way; so that we can minimise or eliminate flaws from either of the methods of imparting education.

Such

an idea is already being experimented by many colleges worldwide.

For example

, University of Toronto, CALTECH and Texas University offer a summer internship option for all of their engineering courses, where candidates are exposed to the actual working conditions of their dream companies. Even MIT has developed a program where a student needs to work a certain number of hours on a real job to pass that course.

Such

programs develop soft skills and personality of a student by making him realise the realities that he might face in real working conditions. While these programs are still not implemented on a large scale, they provide a model that can be copied worldwide to blend in the textbook knowledge with the actual requirements that are necessary for the task. In conclusion, it is better to have the balanced approach of imparting knowledge and experience so that students do better in the workplace.