There are so many Nigerians that are asking this question that which one is better, to have a skill or to have a certificate? For me, I think the two are needed because whenever you have a certificate it means you have already gathered a skill, though sometimes when you have a skill you might not have a certificate to back it up because not all skills come with certificates at the end of the day.
So both of them matters depending on the job, that is actually the balance of the matter before we dive deeper into the real case. A certificate can be placed on an international or professional platform, let's say LinkedIn or Indeed, Jobberman, Upwork, Fiverr.
You will need a certificate to show that you have actually done it before and you know about the subject matter. So that is very very important in every way for you to know that the skill is needed and a certificate is needed also to balance things up. So the two of them are needed to deliver results.
When you are working with an international company you need to show them the certificate that you have done it and you need to show them the skill too that is possible. Thousands of graduates are coming out of this country, Nigeria, every month, either from the university or from many of these tech hubs that are producing tech guys everywhere. Certificates can open doors for you and give you that recognition because I've come to find that there are people who recognize or they are more susceptible to give you a job if they know that you're an alumni of a particular university.
For example, if you come from Harvard University and you have the certificate and you are proven well, there will be much more preference on you than someone who has a skill but doesn't have a certificate because they are sure of the pedigree of the kind of person that you are and what you are bringing to the table and all that. Compare to the guy with the skills.
There are also some skills that need certificates to legalize what you are claiming. For a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant, engineer, nurse and a certificate is very necessary in this kind of a job.
You cannot just say it by mouth and be walking around and practicing. You need a certificate to show that you can dispense your skill in that area. Recognized qualification is needed, it's very much needed.
Even in the tech space, certificate is very useful. A certificate from Google, Meta, Osport, Microsoft, Coursera and the likes, they can help to strengthen your skill as a tech person but what you are able to develop or build with that skill is very very important. That is where certificate comes in.
Certificate shows that you have that skill and it shows where that skill is coming from. Whereas if you have only the skill without a certificate, you just have a lot of explanation to do in front of your interviewer or you are in a zoom meeting and they are asking you, you have to give an explanation, show the result of what you have done, this and that, blah blah blah before you can convince them. But let's say you have a certificate and it's from a reputable place or an institution, it saves you the entire stress of explaining yourself over and over again.
Skills help you to stay relevant at all time. Certificates give you that leverage. You have something to present on paper that you have done it.
There are a lot of people in this country that have come to find out that they have this certificate but they don't have the skill to do it. It is because of this that many Nigerian recruiters have come to ask for samples of what you have done before in order for them to be sure that you are capable of doing it. If you say that you have the skill to run Facebook ads and Instagram ads and bring leads, then you need to show sample and you need to show that you can analyze campaign very well and give a possible result of what is going to come out at the end of the day.
Because when real-life questions are getting asked, you need real-life skills to work here. Not even certificate or skills can bail you out of this kind of situation. There's a difference between you memorizing questions that recruiters are going to ask you and you being very experienced when it comes to certificates and skills and you are capable of delivering.
When your skills match your certificate, it appreciates the value of your certificate and your skills become something that people can sought after. There is an engineering reality to all this is that we are still much more in the area of certificates. We believe so much in having good certificates as it gives you good leverage and this kind of ideology came from the early 60s, 70s and 80s where certificate actually gives job and I think it's all over the world back then where if you have a very good certificate, you will surely do well.
You will get a very good job and there is more jobs as it is back then. It is that legacy that many of our mothers are building onto and they are telling us to actually pursue that certificate and it is what we are doing but thank goodness this generation is much more about skills especially as we are entering into a tech and AI world. Like I said earlier, the best option is to have both Certificates and skills work perfectly together and they are not mutually exclusive.
A certificate is for credibility, structure and assets. Skills give you that confidence, result and the earning power at every point in time.
Posted Using INLEO
