Being a current university student who is half-way through a four-year Bachelor of Education (Secondary) degree, there comes a moment at the end of every semester where my heart rate increases, my palms get sweaty and I look back and think “I could have tried harder”. That moment is when the end of semester results are released and coincidentally, that day is today. Anyone who has gone through tertiary education knows what I’m talking about. We put in so much effort throughout the semester to achieve a good grade and luckily, a lot of the time, it pays off. I’m in no way a perfect student and I could definitely spend more time studying (my version of studying is waiting maybe three days before an assignment is due before starting it and constantly procrastinating by watching episodes of Grey’s Anatomy on my laptop rather than going to class but in the end, are employers really going to be looking at my transcript and saying “Oh well, in Semester 2 2013, she only got a 4 for her core education subject. There’s no point employing her. She’ll be a terrible teacher.” (I actually got a 6 by the way. I swear I’m a decent student!). Yet despite all of this, we put ridiculous amounts of pressure on ourselves to perform and achieve those coveted 7’s.
My question is, is there really any point? Are employers really going to care about our individual results or our GPA? I think not. Well at least not when it comes to working in the education industry. Final results and your GPA probably will have an effect on future career prospects if you’re training to be a lawyer or doctor but I’m not, so it doesn’t count. All employers want to know is that you have a degree and can do the job effectively while also creating and contributing to a harmonious working environment.
Another point I would like to make about those jobs requiring a degree of some kind is the simple fact that if you want to progress and get that long awaited promotion, you have to have completed even more study. It seems to be that a simple Bachelor’s degree is no longer enough and you have to fork out the time, effort and money to get a Masters degree. A Masters is in the new Bachelor and a PhD is the new Masters. What is the world coming to? Now I have nothing against furthering my own education to enhance my career but getting a Masters degree or God forbid a PhD, would potentially be an extra two full-time years of study on top of the four full-time years I’m already doing. It just all seems a bit much at the moment. Perhaps it’ll be worth it down the line.
That's the way it should have begun. 